Power Rangers Psycho Impulse
by Rider Paladin
Summary: 30 years after the destruction of the Psycho Rangers, a new, subtler alien threat manifests on Earth that forces the creation of an international team of highly trained youths to harness the Psycho Ranger powers and fight a secret war against an equally secret invasion. NOTE: This story has been adopted by The Amazing Shrinking Violet, who will be handling its continuation.
1. Ground Zero: Bend Sinister

"Power Rangers Psycho Impulse"

Book 1: "Ground Zero"

Chapter 1: "Bend Sinister"

Disclaimer: This is essentially an original Power Rangers story, with no connection to any previous series save for the use of the Psycho Rangers. Most everything else is mine.

Author's note: I wrote Power Rangers: Psycho Matrix as one of my first fics submitted to but looking back, I think I could have done better. Here's my attempt at that, with a darker, more thematically post-cyberpunk interpretation of a revitalized Psycho Ranger team. Enjoy.

_

* * *

Las Serafinas, Nevada – 2029_

* * *

He stood alone on the battlefield, his comrades unable to go on. He wore a black uniform with armor covering his chest, padding his joints, and protecting both his face and the air-filtering mask he wore. He held a pulse rifle in his hands, facing his would-be killers. Beneath the helmet and the air-filter mask, he smiled.

"Let's do this," he mumbled, and made his move. He fired into the platoon of enemies as he charged them. They fired at him, but the sensors in his helmet allowed him to predict by their body language when they would fire and determine precisely when to evade. As he evaded, he fired back, the sensors in his helmet allowing him to hit his foes with deadly precision.

When all of his foes were down, he walked on, reaching a prison facility. He entered and walked through it, seeing bedraggled men and women who seemed as though they had seen far better days. Of course, it wouldn't be so easy; guards were pouring in to stop him. He raised his rifle and began shooting at the guards while dodging in a manner akin to a character from the classic film _The Matrix._ Eventually, they also fell down, and he continued on to the secured room that contained the supercomputer controlling the prison facility system.

He sliced the door open with a sustained blast from his pulse rifle and shot the guards inside dead. He stepped in and walked to the supercomputer. Just then, his helmet spoke. "_Objective cleared. Do you wish to pause and save, or do you wish to continue?_"

"Pause," he spoke and the supercomputer room and everything around it faded away. His armor faded away as well, leaving him dressed in a black high-tech vest over a black shirt with an upside-down keyhole collar and red stitches in the seams and black jeans with red stitches. The helmet was gone, revealing messy dirty blond hair and an augmented-reality visor over his eyes.

"Robin, are you done with that game yet?" his mother shouted from downstairs. "Dinner's almost ready!"

Robin removed the visor and the vest, revealing teal eyes in a young, fair-skinned face, and left his room for the head of the stairway. "I'm done, Mom!"

_

* * *

Cape Opal, South Africa – 2029_

* * *

"Shango!" a female voice shouted. "Are you done with that game yet? It's time to study!"

"I was done thirty minutes ago, Mother," a tall, broad-shouldered, dark-skinned young man answered calmly. "I've been studying for the past twenty."

"That is good news," Shango's mother answered. "I do not want you to fall behind."

"No, Mother." Shango smiled. "I will not fall behind."

Shango had spent roughly an hour playing the augmented reality game Quadra Cell, in which the player assumed the role of a super-soldier in a quasi-apocalyptic world. The game's system, like so many augmented reality game systems, functioned via a special visor and vest that generated a tangible environment overlaying the real environment for more immersive play. It was an excellent way of bleeding off excess anger or dealing with certain aggressions in less destructive ways.

At this present point, he was reading a textbook on geopolitics, his eyes ghosting over a block of text describing expanding corporate power and influence within global politics. He turned the page to chapter eight, studying the interconnections between banks, governments, and corporations.

_

* * *

Engelnacht, Germany – 2029_

* * *

Another Quadra Cell player was plowing through foes, overcoming their obstruction by simply blasting them out of their lives. He did not bother with things like dodging; he simply moved too fast and hit too hard for them to do much against him. By the time he was past, there was a trail of enemy dead behind him and there was nothing stopping him from destroying the enemy base. At that moment, the A.I. of the game chose to speak through his helmet.

"_Objective cleared. Do you wish to pause and save, or do you wish to continue?_"

"Pause," the player spoke, and the augmented reality around him faded away to reveal the true reality, that he was just a black-haired young man wearing a high-tech visor and vest over dark clothes. He shed both the vest and the visor, revealing blue eyes set in a square-jawed, fair face. He exited his room and walked down to the dining room where his parents and sister awaited him.

"So glad you could deign to join us, Alaric," his father casually teased him.

"Sorry," Alaric answered.

"You spend too much time on that thing," Alaric's sister pouted.

"You do realize I'm going to join the national army next year," Alaric responded. "I need all the pre-training I can get."

"A game, even one as realistic as Quadra Cell, will not teach you everything you need to know," Alaric's mother orated.

Alaric sighed. "I'm still achieving high marks in my classes."

"So you are," Alaric's mother acknowledged. "For the time being, anyway."

"You're never going to stop – how do the Americans say it? – ragging on me about this, are you?" Alaric mused resignedly.

Alaric's mother pondered this for several moments, or seemed to ponder it, and then smirked. "No."

Alaric groaned, at which his father said, "Eat. Behave as though you live here and are part of this family."

"Yes, _Vater,_" Alaric mumbled good-naturedly.

_

* * *

Rio de Primavera, Brazil – 2029_

* * *

A dark-haired girl was running to her house, a film of sweat on her darkly tanned skin causing her yellow sports bra and black jogging shorts to cling even more tightly to her body than before. She was coming back from two hours' worth of jogging around her neighborhood. Once on the porch of her house, she opened the door with the key she carried on her and entered.

"Micaela!" a booming male voice shouted. "You're home."

"Yes, _Pai,_ I'm home," Micaela answered, stepping into the living room to greet her father, a tall man built like a bear. He rose from the sofa and she embraced him, him returning her embrace fully. Then she heard him deeply inhale with his nose.

"_Filha,_ you're sweaty," Micaela's father remarked dryly.

Micaela grinned up at him. "That's what happens when you run around the neighborhood for two hours."

"Cleanse yourself and get new clothes," Micaela's father ordered, but his light tone made it sound more like a suggestion.

Micaela released herself from her father's embrace and jogged upstairs to her room, retrieving a robe from her closet and then going to the bathroom. She turned the shower knobs until the water was just right and then stripped down in order to get into the bathtub. She closed the curtain and let out a soft hiss of relaxation when the warm water hit her body, washing away the detritus of her exertion.

Finishing her shower in ten minutes, Micaela dried herself off with a nearby towel and donned her robe to return to her room. Once inside, she threw on a large T-shirt and boy shorts; it wasn't like she was going to go anywhere today. If something came up, she'd just change quickly. In the meantime . . . she opened a case containing an augmented reality vest and visor, preparing to play the game that was an almost fundamental part of her corner of the universe.

_

* * *

Sabera, India – 2029_

* * *

Slim, agile fingers danced over the tactile keyboard of a computer. A flat-screen monitor showed data in the form of numbers and letters and symbols, all integrated into a rapidly expanding code. Those fingers never stopped once, only slowing once their task was on the very verge of accomplishment. Once the code was finished, one of those fingers stroked the touchpad to click the "run" command.

Another window overlaid the first, with a simple message: "_Software modification accomplished._"

The owner of those fingers, a dusky-caramel-skinned girl with dark brown hair and dark brown eyes glittering with cleverness, smiled. She'd been at this for a little over an hour, and she was almost sad that it was so easy. She stretched in her chair and closed the program, ejecting the CD-ROM in the process. She inserted the CD-ROM into a slot in the high-tech vest that enabled her to play augmented reality games.

There would be ample time for her to work later, despite what her mother and her father would say. Now, however, was the time she chose to relax. The game was simply her method of doing so; she strapped on the AR vest and donned the corresponding visor, moving to a more open space in order to play without accidentally destroying her things.

Just as the game was about to start, she heard her mother's voice call out for her. "Achala! Are you finished with that? There's someone here to see you!"

Achala sighed and removed her visor and vest. She straightened out her clothes, a simple reddish-pink blouse and a long khaki skirt with a slit up the middle, and walked downstairs, dreading what was to come. It was her mother's habit to try to set her up with young men, often the sons of her coworkers, in an attempt to give Achala something of a social life.

"_You shouldn't spend so much time studying and playing computer games,_" Achala's mother often said to her. "_You need to spend time with other people your age. In the real world._"

Achala didn't begrudge her mother that point, but she thought that she should have the ability and freedom to choose her own associates. She was all right with friends, but she didn't necessarily want to date. Of course, it wasn't like her mother really understood that last part, as she kept finding boys for her.

Of course, Achala was surprised when she found out that her "suitor" was actually a petite East Asian girl dressed in a dark gray suit uniform. "_Mata_?" Achala wondered. "Do you think I have turned into a lesbian?"

"Not at all, _ladaki,_" Achala's mother replied. "This is simply a young woman who wishes to make your acquaintance. She said it has something to do with that game you're always playing."

"Oh," Achala said. She turned to the girl. "Hello."

The girl politely bowed. "Hello. I am Sakurai Miyuki. It was imperative that I come to your home. Time is of the essence."

* * *

End Notes: That's the beginning. While it may seem short to you, it's something I'm doing for a challenge on LiveJournal; I have to write 1700 words or more each day for an entire month and it has to be an original story. This technically qualifies because these are original characters with very little ties to canon incarnations of Power Rangers, save for the fact that they will be taking on the powers of the Psycho Rangers. There will definitely be more and the story will be posted in batches of two or three chapters to boost your reading experience since each chapter will be around 1700 words long. Hopefully, you enjoyed.


	2. Ground Zero: Distorted View

"Power Rangers Psycho Impulse"

Book 1: "Ground Zero"

Chapter 2: "Distorted View"

Disclaimer: The Psycho Rangers are about the only thing featured in this story that doesn't belong to me. Everyone and everything else is firmly mine.

Author's note: I've introduced the characters that are going to be the Psycho Rangers and now it's time for them to come together and realize the threat that has taken root on their planet. To elucidate, the thematic style of the story is going to be a hybrid of "traditional" extraterrestrial-centric science fiction and the darker "post-cyberpunk" style of science fiction that evolved from the archetypical cyberpunk stories of the 1980s. Hopefully, you enjoy. Now let's begin.

_

* * *

Las Serafinas, Nevada_

* * *

Robin was speeding down the stairs to answer the doorbell when he nearly tripped over himself. Fortunately, his Quadra Cell-honed reflexes served him well and he turned his fall into a forward spring that brought him safely on the floor, if a little wobbly for his effort. He strode to the door and opened it, finding a couple of men in gray suit uniforms standing before him. 

"Can I help you guys with something?" he asked.

"Robin Murphy?" one of the men, the taller and more imposing of the two, greeted.

"Yeah, that's me," Robin confirmed.

"Good, because it is important for our boss that she sees you," the other man, smaller and leaner, said.

"What for?" Robin asked.

"To save the world," the first man tersely replied.

_

* * *

Cape Opal, South Africa_

* * *

Shango walked back home from school instead of taking the bus as so many of his peers did. His house wasn't so far from the school and it was good for him to walk that distance. It built up his strength and endurance, something that he rather enjoyed, as he never knew when he would have to engage in strenuous activity. Plus, Quadra Cell, as fun as it was, shouldn't be the only exercise he had. 

When he entered his house, he saw a dusky-skinned woman in a gray suit uniform with his mother. "Mother? Who is this?"

"She's someone from the United Nations who is here to see you," Shango's mother replied.

"Hello, Mr. Mbeki," the uniformed woman greeted pleasantly.

"Please call me Shango; Mr. Mbeki is my father's name and he's away on business right now," Shango answered just as pleasantly.

"All right, Shango," the uniformed woman replied. "I'm here because this is a matter of utmost importance to the organization I work for."

Shango looked at her. "I'm listening. Please, do go on."

"We will need your help to save the world."

_

* * *

Engelnacht, Germany_

* * *

Alaric packed up his Quadra Cell case, planning on taking it to his friend's house so they could play a co-op version of the game by linking their AR sets via infrared waves. Just as he finished, he heard the front door chime and sighed. He would just answer it, shoo them away quickly, and then get to his friend's house. Unfortunately, his sister just had to get to the door first. 

Alaric saw enough to know that it was a man and a woman, both dressed in dark gray suit uniforms with some kind of insignia on their jackets. "Hey, Adalia, who are those people?"

"Just some people looking for you, _Bruder,_" Adalia replied.

Alaric finished coming down the stairs and looked at the two uniformed people. "What do you want?"

"We wish to speak with you, Mr. Schroeder," the woman replied.

"About?" Alaric challenged.

"We are recruiting you to save the world," the man answered.

"Give me a break," Alaric scoffed.

"If you come with us, you will see for yourself," the man stated.

Alaric glared at the man. The man glared back, something hard and fierce settling into his eyes. Alaric continued staring him down, refusing to be the first to submit. Finally, a smile formed on the man's face.

"You're brave."

"Thank you." Alaric's tone was half-sardonic, half-sincere.

"Will you come with us?" the woman asked, but her tone was too firm for it to be a plea.

"Depends. Where are we going?"

"New York City."

"New York City? In the United States?"

"Yes, that New York City," the man confirmed. "And you _will_ save the world. When you see why, you will have no more doubts."

_

* * *

Rio de Primavera, Brazil_

* * *

Micaela was jogging back home after another bout of running, this one lasting for two hours and forty-five minutes. It had taken more out of her than her standard two-hour runs, but it was worth it. The more she ran like this, the more her endurance and speed would build up. When she arrived on the doorstep of her house, she entered via her key . . . finding her father conversing with a man she didn't recognize, one wearing a gray suit uniform. 

"_Pai?_" she asked. "Who is this?"

"Hello, Ms. Nunes," the man greeted.

"Who are you?" Micaela asked.

"Forgive me," the man said. "Call me Agent Trice."

"Mr. Trice, what do you want with me?" Micaela asked.

"This man says it has something to do with that game you are always playing, but he assured me that it was nothing illegal," Mr. Nunes replied.

Micaela sighed with relief. "In fact, Ms. Nunes, my organization is recruiting you, on behalf of the United Nations, to save the planet," Mr. Trice said.

"Save it from what?" Micaela asked.

"I can't say that here," Mr. Trice replied, "but I assure you that it is nothing illegitimate."

"If you say so," Micaela said.

"I do not believe he means any harm toward you, Micaela," Mr. Nunes offered.

"All right, then," Micaela said. "Should I get changed?"

"You're ok as you are," Agent Trice replied. "There will be clothes waiting for you when I take you to our base of operations."

_

* * *

New York City, U.S.A._

* * *

Separate from the towering metropolitan spires, separate from the suburbs, separate from the slums . . . separate from everything, period, stood a tower that resembled an upside-down cone with its point shaved off. In the place of that point was an upside-down half-sphere that served as a rooftop. The tower's surface gleamed brightly, both its plasmetal walls and the tempered glass that served as its windows. This tower was home to the top-secret United Nations interstellar space program known as XIPHOS and its agents were busy inside. 

Coordinating the agents' efforts was the director of XIPHOS, Ceres Lockhart. Ceres was a moderately tall woman, even taller in her "ass-kicking boots," and dressed in a mandarin-collared, dual-zippered black coat that allowed her legs freedom of movement while securing her torso. Black pants covered her legs and black knee-high combat boots hugged her calves. Platinum blonde hair was styled in a long, thin braid while the freed portion of her hair was styled in a pageboy shape. Green eyes stared out of a pleasant but stern face with strong yet feminine features. She was just androgynous enough for others to do a double take to confirm her womanhood.

"They're coming now, you say?" Ceres repeated over the com-link in her ear. "Good to know."

Ceres strode into the room where a spiky, crystalline sphere glowing off-white with energy was suspended in a zero-gravity device resting in the center of the room. She looked at the lab-coated scientists busily studying the sphere via holo-screens surrounding the zero-gravity device in which it was suspended. There were five screens in all, each one displaying the schematics of a powered suit and the tools those suits were given. Each screen had a different coloring – red, blue, black, yellow, and pink – and there was one scientist for each.

"You've checked them thoroughly?" Ceres asked the lead scientist, who was standing before the red screen.

The lead scientist turned to Ceres. "Yes, Director Lockhart, we have. The suits are perfectly operational; we only need wearers."

"Hopefully, that's all there is to it," Ceres remarked. "We spent two fortunes learning to harness the secrets of those creatures. It would be disastrous if anything went wrong."

"You have my word, Director; nothing will go wrong," the lead scientist answered.

"I'll hold you to that, Doctor," Ceres said as she walked away.

_

* * *

XIPHOS Base – Two Hours Later_

* * *

Robin was sitting in the lounge of the XIPHOS base, idly reading an entertainment magazine. It didn't really interest him, but as long as he had something to read, he didn't really care. Soon enough, he became aware of a presence sitting down at a right angle to him. He turned and saw a broad-shouldered, long-legged young man his age, maybe slightly younger or older, with dark skin, a closely shaven scalp, and garbed in a blue dress shirt and black jeans. He briefly waved at the other young man, who returned his wave with a nod. 

Three others came in, one by one. The first was a black-haired, fair-skinned young man dressed in a black shirt and dark blue jeans who looked like he would intimidate most challengers into not fighting him. The second was a dark-haired, duskily tanned girl dressed in a yellow sports bra and tight black jogging shorts, the latter of which emphasized her wide hips and strong thighs.

_Damn, she's hot,_ was Robin's first thought upon seeing her. Some of what he was thinking must have manifested in his face or his eyes, because the next thing the red-shirted boy knew, he was on the receiving end of a dirty glare from the sports bra-wearing girl. Robin looked away grumpily, mumbling, "It's not my fault you're hot." To his right angle, he could hear the dark-skinned young man sighing almost disdainfully and that did not help his mood at all.

The final "guest of honor" was a moderately tanned, dark-haired girl who seemed to be of Indian descent. She wore a reddish-pink blouse and a long khaki skirt with a slit up the middle to allow her legs greater freedom of movement. She was quite pretty, but quite intelligent at the same time, Robin could tell. Of all of them, she seemed the most relaxed being here.

"I think we all ought to introduce ourselves," Robin suggested. "I'll go first. I'm Robin, my hobby is schooling fools in Quadra Cell, I don't have much in the way of great aspirations for my life, and if there's anything I don't like, I'd have to say uppity people who can't take a compliment."

"'Uppity,' huh?" the yellow-clad girl retorted sharply. "My name is Micaela, my hobby is Quadra Cell, my goal is to be the best Olympic runner in the world, and I don't much like uppity _gringos_ who think they have a right to undress me with their eyes and treat me like a free prostitute."

"Hey!" Robin protested indignantly, violently discarding the magazine he'd just been reading.

"Settle down," the dark-skinned young man said. He gave Robin a steely look.

"What did I do?" Robin asked, still up in arms. "_What_ did I do?"

"You could not keep your lecherous eye to yourself," the blue-shirted boy replied simply.

"I see we will be off to an excellent start," the pink-bloused girl remarked wryly.

* * *

End Notes: The Rangers-to-be have met each other, and already there's dissension among the ranks. Can these young people pull it together to fight the threat before them, and just what is that threat, exactly? For the answers to those questions, read on and let me know what you think so far. 


	3. Ground Zero: Turn Screw

"Power Rangers Psycho Impulse"

Book 1: "Ground Zero"

Chapter 3: "Turn Screw"

Disclaimer: The Psycho Rangers are not mine and that's it. Everyone and everything else is.

Author's note: The team's met up and already there's tension. Of course, they're gonna have to find a way to work past it if they want to save the world. The question is what they're going to save the world from. That question will be answered and you will see the debut of the new Psycho Rangers soon. In the meantime, read.

_

* * *

XIPHOS Base_

* * *

"_Ja,_" the darkly-clad boy remarked to the pink-bloused girl.

The pink-bloused girl turned to the darkly-clad boy. "Hello."

"I'm Alaric," the boy said.

"I am Achala," the girl responded.

"I should introduce myself as well," the blue-shirted boy said. "I'm Shango."

"And we already know Loudmouth and Hotblood," Alaric remarked sarcastically.

Robin and Micaela glared at Alaric, who just smirked slightly at them. "Just calling it like I see it," the dark-haired German boy replied.

"We're supposed to save the world," Shango said. "We should be above this petty bickering."

"You'd think so, wouldn't you, bro?" Robin remarked sardonically.

Shango looked at Robin with a hard stare. "We are not 'brothers.'"

"Just a figure of speech," Robin answered laconically, but with a grumbling undercurrent.

At that moment, the door slid open, revealing a petite East Asian girl in a dark gray suit uniform. She looked at the five youths. "Hello, Miss Sakurai," Achala greeted.

Sakurai nodded to Achala. "Would the five of you please follow me?"

The five youths followed Sakurai into the central ops room of the base. Inside, they saw people manning computer units consisting of holo-screens and tactile keyboards, rapidly inputting information. Coordinating all this was a tall, imperious platinum blonde dressed in black and with her hair styled into a thin braid.

"Director Lockhart," Sakurai called out.

The platinum blonde turned to regard Sakurai with green eyes. "Deputy Sakurai. You've brought them. Thank you."

"What is this place?" Robin asked. "Who are you people? Why are we here?"

"All to be answered very soon, Mr. Murphy," Director Lockhart replied. "But rest assured, this planet is in genuine danger."

"From what?" Robin inquired.

Director Lockhart looked at one of the people on the computer units. "Ziggurat, show them what I mean."

"Yes, Director," the man replied and suddenly the holo-screens were showing images of the less human development-intensive parts of the world. Many of those parts looked ravaged, even scorched and gouged. The five youths could see corpses strewn about in various kinds of disrepair, suggesting that their conditions had not been brought on by anything painless. The images shifted, showing people chained together and forced to dig at the command of anonymously garbed soldiers. Some were dragged away for fates unknown when they slowed their efforts from a third or fourth bout of exhaustion. The images shifted once again, showing a brutal confrontation that seemed to be equal parts unearthly firepower and vicious hand-to-hand. The environment around them was being destroyed and the perspective was shifting to show the youths people caught in the crossfire.

"What is this crap?!" Robin asked, horrified. "What the hell do these people think they're _doing?_"

"Doing what the Western powers do best," Shango replied. "Exploit, ravage, and murder for what they want."

"That may be, but it's not them," Director Lockhart contradicted. "Not this time. But they have taken positions of power and influence within the Western nations' power structures."

"Who?" Micaela asked. "And since when did Westerners have weapons that powerful?"

"These are nominally Earthborn weapons; just enhanced with the technology they've brought from their planet of origin," Deputy Sakurai explained.

"Planet of origin?" Robin echoed. "You mean they're aliens?"

"'Extraterrestrials' is more like it," Director Lockhart corrected.

"No, that's the politically correct term," Robin retorted. "They're not from this planet, so they're aliens, plain and simple."

"The colloquial term may be 'alien,' but the more scientifically accurate – not the more 'politically correct' – term is 'extraterrestrial,'" Director Lockhart answered brusquely.

"Assuming you're not just talking crazy and that these assholes are from another planet, galaxy, star system, whatever . . . why are they here?" Robin asked.

"We found them six years ago," Director Lockhart replied, "when I was commissioned to investigate what the United Nations believed to be human rights violations within the developing world and supposedly perpetrated by elements of the Western powers. If only it was as mundane as that; in truth, we were in the middle of a dual invasion, a war between two differing extraterrestrial factions being waged on this planet."

"Why this planet?" Alaric asked.

"For its precious mineral ores," Director Lockhart answered. "Silver, gold, platinum, diamonds, gems of various colors – for some reason, their molecular composition allows them to amplify the power of the weapons they use. However, they seem to be hoarding these ores once they get them, although we don't know for what purpose yet."

"How would they be able to do this and get away with it?" Robin questioned fiercely. "Shouldn't someone be reporting that people are getting slaughtered and used as slave labor for these things?"

"The extraterrestrials aren't just in the Western governments, they're also in the media companies," Director Lockhart explained. "They're keeping their misdeeds under wraps and if you want to know how they can infiltrate both the governments and whatever companies could serve their purposes, they seem to have some sort of shape-shifting ability that allows them to seamlessly replicate a human body both externally and internally."

"If that's the case, how do we tell who's human and who isn't?" Micaela asked. "And what makes you think we can fight them?"

"You can fight them because you're the five best Quadra Cell players we've ever seen," Director Lockhart answered.

"What?!" Robin spat out. "That's just a game! Are you nuts?!"

Shango fought down a smile. "As uncalled-for as Robin's outburst was, he did have a point. What makes you think high scores on a game qualify us to fight an extraterrestrial threat with the resources of powerful nations behind it and their own highly advanced technology to fall back on?"

"Because Quadra Cell is really a combat training instrument," Deputy Sakurai replied.

"A training device?" Micaela asked. "You're kidding, aren't you? Or, you're nuts."

"The five of you are not only the highest skilled players in the world, you also have unique abilities of your own both in and out of the game," Director Lockhart answered. "Robin Murphy, you're a highly capable hand-to-hand fighter and a respectable marksman. Shango Mbeki, you've thought your way out of conundrums in the minutes that it would take trained soldiers to even begin to form a plan. Alaric Schroeder, you've got a good deal of strength on your side . . . not to mention luck. Micaela Nunes, you are the fastest runner in Brazil; twenty-five mph, right? Achala Chandra, you're extremely skilled with information technology, and you were even able to modify the operating software for Quadra Cell. Thought it was too easy?"

"No way!" Robin exclaimed. "You mean she's the best one here?"

"I hope that will not be a problem," Achala answered.

"Yes, she is the best one here," Deputy Sakurai confirmed. "Her scores were the highest overall. Mr. Murphy, you scored highest in combat but you're the lowest here in terms of actual strategy and somewhat middling in stealth.

"Mr. Mbeki, you're more than adequate on combat, but your real strengths lie in strategic ability.

"Mr. Schroeder, you're highest in terms of enemy soldiers killed, but your innocent casualty rate is something to work on.

"Ms. Nunes, it seems you're particularly good at things like evasion, stealth, and infiltration.

"Ms. Chandra, you may not be the best combatant here or killed the most enemy soldiers, but you've cleared all your objectives in almost exactly the minimal time required, maybe slightly faster, and no innocent casualties have been suffered on your end. That, to me, shows a very keen mind at work –" she looked at Robin and Alaric "– and that will ultimately be more useful to this operation than pure strength or combat prowess."

Director Lockhart stepped in. "All of that is true, but it is the unique meshing of your skills that will prove the difference between the survival and destruction of our planet."

"Who are you people, anyway?" Shango asked.

"We're XIPHOS," Director Lockhart replied. "Xenogenic International Program for Humanity in Outer Space. We're charged with making contact and establishing mutually beneficial relationships with extraterrestrial sentient life."

"International, huh?" Robin muttered.

"Do you think there's no use for international organizations?" Micaela asked sharply.

"When they let people run their own lives, yeah," Robin retorted. "And how are we gonna fight these guys, anyway?"

Deputy Sakurai disappeared into another room and came back mere seconds later with a small chrome briefcase. She held it horizontally and opened it one lock at a time. When the top lid was fully unfolded, the five youths could see five black bracers with faces resembling oversized digital watches with rounded-edged rectangular "tails" extending from them.

"What are these?" Alaric asked.

"Morphers," Deputy Sakurai replied. "Psycho Morphers, to be precise, each powered by a special crystal designed to allow you tap into a specific Psycho Ranger's powers upon activation."

"Morphers? Psycho Rangers?" Robin repeated. "This sounds really crazy."

"The five of you were specifically chosen for this task," Director Lockhart said, handing each of the youths a Psycho Morpher.

"Which wrist does it go on?" Micaela asked.

"The left," Deputy Sakurai replied.

The five youths placed the Psycho Morphers on their left wrists, the bands on the morphers locking around those wrists. "To transform into your Ranger forms, press this button –" Deputy Sakurai pointed out the specific button on the "tail" of the morphers "– and say the code phrase 'Execute Psycho Trigger.'"

"And just like that, we become Psycho Rangers?" Robin inferred.

"Yes," Director Lockhart confirmed.

"What is a Psycho Ranger?" Shango inquired. "Forgive me, but the name sounds very intimidating and unfriendly."

"A Psycho Ranger, originally, was a machine-monster equipped with energies akin to the energies tapped into by standard-issue Power Rangers for the purpose of killing Power Rangers," Director Lockhart explained. "The Psycho Rangers permanently met their end thirty years ago, but five years ago, to combat the threat these warring extraterrestrials on our soil pose, I authorized an interstellar expedition to find what was left of them. We succeeded and spent the next four years learning how to harness their powers for our ends."

"Who is to say we won't become monsters ourselves if we use these morphers?" Achala asked.

"According to our scientists, we have not been able to find a trace of malicious intent within the energies that were lying dormant within the Psycho Rangers' bodies," Director Lockhart answered. "There isn't anything to worry about for the moment."

"For the moment, yes, but a great disservice has been done to the dead," Shango said somberly. "This may come back to haunt us in the future."

"Get off it, man," Robin advised disdainfully. "All that hoodoo crap isn't real."

Shango glared at Robin sharply, to which Director Lockhart held up a hand. "That is enough. There's a firefight going on Sierra Tigris between the two factions and you're going to stop it before any innocent humans get dead."

"How are we gonna get there?" Robin asked.

"The coordinates are programmed into your Psycho Razors, and they're waiting for you in the hangar," Deputy Sakurai replied. "The Psycho Morphers' control systems will direct you to the hangar. Now get moving."

"Aye-aye, lieutenant commander," Robin assented sarcastically.

* * *

End Notes: Ran a tad longer than I expected, but the setup was important. The next chapter is going to cover the new Psycho Rangers battling the warring extraterrestrial factions, but who are they and what is their ultimate goal? And will the Psycho Rangers be able to work as a team? For the answers to those questions and to see other developments, keep reading and let me know what you thought of this latest installment.


	4. Ground Zero: Twisted Trigger

"Power Rangers Psycho Impulse"

Book 1: "Ground Zero"

Chapter 4: "Twisted Trigger"

Disclaimer: The Psycho Rangers are not mine. Everyone and everything else in this story is.

Author's note: The new Rangers have their morphers and have their modes of transport, but how well are they going to fight against the extraterrestrial invasion of Earth? And how well are they going to get along with each other? For the answers to those questions and others, read on.

_

* * *

XIPHOS Base_

* * *

The five newly drafted Rangers walked down to the hangar, guided by the control systems in their morphers. Once there, they found five hovercraft bikes, with rocket-style engines in place of back wheels and curving, scythe-like protrusions extending where front wheels would be. Each bike was colored black, with highlights in individual colors – red, blue, gray-black, yellow, and pink. 

"Red's mine," Robin stated, and mounted the red hoverbike before anyone could stop him.

"Well, he is wearing a red shirt," Alaric said. "Maybe we should all pick the ones that match the colors we're wearing." He got on the hoverbike highlighted gray-black, while the other three mounted the hoverbikes with highlights matching the colors they were wearing.

"The coordinates are already programmed into this, right?" Robin asked.

"Yes," Shango answered. "Now let's move."

The five Rangers started their hoverbikes and rode them out of the XIPHOS Base hangar, only to be surprised when those bikes began to accelerate. "_Whoa!_" Robin shouted as the digital speedometer on his bike climbed higher and higher more and more rapidly.

It was all the Rangers could do to hold on to their hoverbikes while they were accelerating. However, they didn't have to hold on for very long; they soon found themselves in African wilderness, which the bikes' coordinates were saying was part of Sierra Tigris. This was the point at which the bikes slowed to a more normal speed, allowing the Rangers to get a better look at their surroundings. In the distance, they could hear the sounds of combat.

_

* * *

Sierra Tigris, wilderness region_

* * *

"I don't think we should wait for them to come to us," Robin said, beginning to ride his hoverbike toward those sounds. 

Shango followed, visibly irate if one were to see how tightly he was clenching the handlebars of his hoverbike. "We need a plan."

"I've got one. We go in and kick their asses."

"The simple solution is not always the best one," Shango rejoined. "Very often, it is among the worst solutions."

Robin was approaching the scene of the fight and both he and Shango could see two factions of uniformed men fighting each other with high-tech assault rifles and with their bare hands. To their surprise, the uniformed men took notice of their arrival and both factions began opening fire on them. Cursing Robin under his breath, Shango moved in front of him to draw the fire of the uniformed men. Of course, Robin wouldn't let Shango take the heat by himself, or rather – let Shango start "kicking ass" before he could.

Robin accelerated past Shango and threw himself off his hoverbike, lunging at the uniformed men. "Execute Psycho Trigger!" he shouted, pressing the button Deputy Sakurai had pointed out to him. A grid of red energy formed over his body, acting as the "skeleton" for his Ranger suit, which finished forming when he landed on the ground slashing one of the uniformed men with a black-and-red sword. Blackish-blue blood sprayed from the wound and Robin rose to his feet, transformed.

At this point, Shango and the others had made it just in time to see the morphed Robin. He wore a black armor-like suit with red framing the sides of his torso and forming vestigial protrusions on his shoulders. A bar of red across his chest connected the sides, forming a red "H" on a black background. A white belt with a gold-and-black "N" buckle wrapped around his waist and red stripes outlined his pelvis, which was also somewhat emphasized by silver studs just below the buckle. A white "collar" framed the suit's neck, while white bracers and boot cuffs highlighted by red wrapped around half his forearms and ringed his upper calves. His gauntlets and boots were black, with silver studs on the backs of his hands, and a black helmet with demonic red framing around an equally demonic black visor obscured his face, while a silver plate decorated by needle-like black "teeth" covered his mouth.

"Robin?" Alaric asked. "Is that you?"

"Yeah," Robin replied, but his voice had a twisted, metallic quality to it. "So this is the power of a Psycho Ranger. Feels awesome."

"Then you must be the Red Psycho Ranger," Alaric concluded.

"Or Psycho Red for short," Robin rejoined.

"We shouldn't waste any more time," Achala said, raising her Psycho Morpher. Micaela and the remaining unmorphed boys raised their morphers as well, all four angling their wrists so that their fingers were pointing toward their eyes. They drew back their left arms, positioning the fingertips of their right hands over their left wrists, and then swung their left arms back around into position in front of their bodies, pressing the activation buttons pointed out by Deputy Sakurai while shouting, "Execute Psycho Trigger!"

"_Psycho Trigger Initiated,"_ the morphers' control systems declared. Immediately, the display panels on those morphers flashed with more equilateral digital representations of Robin's belt buckle, albeit colored pink, yellow, blue, and grayish-black. Energy grids formed around their bodies, acting as skeletons for the Psycho Ranger suits that quickly covered them. The suits were exactly identical to Robin's, only highlighted in their own individual colors – Shango's in vivid blue, Alaric's in a shade of black slightly differing from the black of his armor and with a gold collar, Micaela's in electric yellow, and Achala's in striking pink.

"This . . . is amazing," Shango uttered in a twisted and metallic voice.

"Uh-huh," Alaric agreed in a similarly twisted and metallic voice.

"This feels nice," Micaela joined in, her voice just as twisted and metallic as the boys' but with a hint of menace in it.

"Stop wasting time," Achala cut in, her voice twisted and metallic like her comrades'.

"Rangers!" one of the uniformed men growled. "We were not told there were Power Rangers on this world!"

"We're not Power Rangers, dipstick," Robin sneered. "We're Psycho Rangers, but you can identify us by color. And you're all going down."

The uniformed men began to open fire on Psycho Red, who deflected their blasts with his sword. "My turn." In a red-lit blur of motion, Psycho Red began slicing apart the uniformed men, black-blue blood spilling from them.

The other Psycho Rangers materialized their own weapons, Psycho Blue a blue-and-silver double-sided axe, Psycho Black a black rod with sharp twin prongs on the business end, Psycho Yellow a black-and-yellow sling, and Psycho Pink a black-and-pink bow. Blue and Black moved into action, attacking the uniformed men with their weapons and their speed, while Yellow and Pink utilized long-distance attacks with their respective sling and bow, the latter firing energy arrows.

Red's sword was blocked by one of the uniformed men via that man's rifle. The same thing happened to Blue's axe and Black's rod. The other uniformed men began to fire on Yellow and Pink, who dodged in yellow- and pink-lit blurs of motion. At one point, Yellow stopped and the ground warped beneath her feet, swallowing her in, much to Pink's worry. She didn't have to worry for long, as Yellow reemerged from another ground warp and shot down several of the uniformed men with her sling.

"Enough of this!" one of the uniformed men roared. "It's time we showed these humans what they're dealing with!"

With angry roars or screeches, the uniformed men literally tore out of their bodies as though they were just old clothes that had outlasted their usefulness. Behind those human bodies were monstrous dragon-like and birdlike hominids . . . and none of them looked happy to see the Psycho Rangers.

Psycho Red smirked under his helmet and pointed his sword at them. "Come on."

The draconic and birdlike hominids rushed the Psycho Rangers as one, the Psycho Rangers lunging into the thick of battle. Red, Blue, and Black sliced through them with their weapons, while Yellow and Pink fired upon the extraterrestrial hominids. As much superiority as the extraterrestrial hominids had in sheer numbers, the Psycho Rangers were too stubborn to just give in and cry uncle.

Psycho Red charged up his sword with green electricity and swung it in a wide arc, sending a wave of green lightning through it and at two scores of alien hominids, killing them. Psycho Blue held his axe in battle position and spun at super-speed, the air friction from his spinning generating the unique combination of heat and light known as flame. His axe tore through even more of the draconic and birdlike hominids, killing them as well. Psycho Black charged his rod with green electricity and stabbed it into the ground, sending a wave of that same force through the ground and killing more of the hominids.

Psychos Yellow and Pink launched themselves into the air, poised horizontally and with their weapons pointed at the ground. They strafed the alien hominids, to the point that there were hardly any more that could stand against them. Of course, when they landed, they found that one of the hominids, a dragon type, had survived . . . and was mightily pissed.

"You brats . . ." he rasped. "Who do you think you are?"

"We're the Psycho Rangers," Psycho Yellow retorted. "And you're going to be lava ash soon."

"We'll see!" the draconic hominid snarled, summoning a wicked-looking double-bladed lance.

Psycho Red charged at the dragon hominid, their weapons colliding halfway. Their battle was fast and brutal, until the dragon hominid slashed Psycho Red with an energized blade, knocking the twisted Red Ranger down with a charred mark where the blade had struck his armor. Just as Red started to get up, Black and Blue went on the attack with their respective rod and axe, the dragon hominid easily blocking their attacks with his lance. Again, he energized both blades on the lance and slashed both Psycho Rangers, knocking them down just in time for Pink and Yellow to open fire on him with their weapons. The dragon hominid simply deflected their fire, the energy coating his blades generating a reflective field that sent their fire back at them.

"Who is this guy?" Psycho Black asked.

"I am Kraylost," the draconic hominid replied, "and I'm going to kill you."

Psycho Red rose to his feet, supporting himself with his sword. "Screw that. You're not killing me. Or anyone else on this planet. Understand . . . punk-ass?"

* * *

End Notes: That's a good point on which to end this installment. The Psycho Rangers have activated their morphers for the first time, but will their newfound abilities enable them to prevail against the invasion forces threatening to turn their planet into charcoal in their quest for the planet's precious minerals? Will they be able to overcome their personality conflicts in order to cohere as a team? For the answers to those questions and others, keep on reading and let me know what you think of this one. 


	5. Ground Zero: Choking Coils

"Power Rangers Psycho Impulse"

Book 1: "Ground Zero"

Chapter 5: "Choking Coils"

Disclaimer: The Psycho Rangers are not mine. Everyone and everything else is.

Author's note: How's it going so far? Sick of this story yet? No? Then let's keep going. The Psycho Rangers are in the middle of their first battle and it doesn't seem to be going well for them so far. Will they triumph over their foe? Will they triumph over their interpersonal issues? To see the answers to those questions, read on.

_

* * *

Sierra Tigris, wilderness region_

* * *

"You think to challenge me?" Kraylost asked mockingly. "You foolish brat." 

"You wanna see how foolish I am?!" Psycho Red asked, charging his sword with green lightning again. He sliced the air with his sword and an arc of green lightning struck Kraylost when he tried to block it with his lance. The lightning arc had sliced through the shaft of his lance and struck him in the shoulder and chest, eliciting a roar of pain and a spurt of inhuman blood from him. A self-satisfied smirk formed behind Psycho Red's helmet.

At this point, the other Psycho Rangers had gotten up. "Is he down?" Psycho Blue asked.

"Looks like it," Psycho Black remarked.

"Yeah, he's down," Psycho Red sneered. "And he's not getting back up any time soon."

Just as the twisted Red Ranger was about to walk away, the Psycho Rangers heard a demonic snarl, prompting Yellow to place her hand on Red's shoulder to stop him. Psycho Red turned to look at her and then turned to look at the source of the growl. "Aw . . . screw me sideways."

"You think I'm done with you yet?" Kraylost snarled, holding up the severed halves of his lance, each half now a separate bladed weapon. "You will regret this, Rangers, starting _right now!!_"

Kraylost super-sped at the Psycho Rangers, who moved to defend themselves at a similar rate of speed but to no avail; the dragon hominid was cutting through their defenses like a finger through wet tissue paper. Pink blocked his lance with her bow and then charged the string with green electricity so she could use it as a slicing weapon. Kraylost, if he was injured, showed no signs of pain and thrust his lance at her, scoring a glancing slash when she attempted to dodge. Yellow sprang into action next, firing her sling at Kraylost, who crossed his split lance to generate an energy aegis that deflected her shots. Kraylost then turned that aegis into a blast field that threw Yellow through several trees.

Blue and Black and Red attempted to block Kraylost's attacks with their own weapons, only for Kraylost to slide past their defenses and retaliate with brutal attacks of his own. Black and Red attempted to strike or slash him with their weapons, but Kraylost blocked them both and pushed them away, following up with a roundhouse slash with both blades that knocked them down. Blue launched himself into the air and threw himself into a super-fast spin with his axe out in attack position, slashing Kraylost repeatedly. Kraylost took the twisted Blue Ranger's attacks until he spotted an opening, slicing Blue in mid-spin. The force of the slash, combined with the momentum from Blue's spin, propelled Blue a good distance away and knocked him to the ground.

"Why can't we beat this guy?" Psycho Red snarled.

Just then, Psycho Pink walked up to him. "Your sword. Give it to me."

"Why?" Red asked.

"I have an idea." Pink's eyes hardened beneath her visor. "Hand over the sword."

Red thrust his sword at her, hilt first. "Just don't break it. Got me?"

"Certainly." Pink nodded curtly and took the sword by the hilt, nocking it on the string of her bow. She pulled the sword back on the string, transferring green electricity into the blade via the string.

"What do you think you're going to do?" Kraylost sneered.

"This," Psycho Pink replied, releasing the sword as though it were an arrow. The sword flew with such speed and force, enhanced by an aura of green-tinted electricity, that even Kraylost couldn't deflect it. The sword pierced Kraylost in whatever passed for his left pectoral, sending a charge of green lightning through his body and eliciting howls of pain from him.

The twisted Pink Ranger turned to her allies. "The green energy hurts him."

"I know," Psycho Red said. "When I charged up my sword with that power, I was able to wipe out a whole bunch of those things."

"Do you feel it?" Psycho Pink asked Black, Blue, and Yellow.

"I don't know what I feel, but I know there's something in me, waiting to come out," Psycho Yellow replied.

"That must be the energy," Psycho Blue concluded.

"What do we do with it?" Psycho Black asked.

Psycho Pink looked at her fellow Rangers. "We pool our energies together."

Kraylost had managed to pull the sword out of his chest and he was incensed. "You . . . you . . ." he sputtered at Psycho Pink. "You _harridan!!_"

Just as he began the charge, Psycho Pink blasted him with a violent emerald electrical discharge, knocking him back. Psycho Red added his electrical discharge to Psycho Pink's, with Blue, Black, and Yellow soon joining in. The united streams of electricity pummeled Kraylost, entering his wound and injuring him further. Green electricity and smoke began to pour out of his mouth and his organs, such as they were, began to boil and liquefy. Finally, he died in an explosion of electrical light and flame and smoke.

"Whoa," Psycho Red uttered. "That was . . ."

"I can't believe we . . ." Psycho Yellow whispered.

"We did," Psycho Black stated.

"I'm scanning for humans right now," Psycho Blue said. "I see a cluster just five hundred meters due south." He ran in that direction, so fast that he was visible as only a blue-lit blur of motion. The other Psycho Rangers ran after him, also moving so quickly that they were only visible as blurs of motion lit in their respective colors. They stopped at a mine, witnessing a throng of dark-skinned Africans digging in a mine with pickaxes while overseen by several uniformed Africans.

Psycho Pink scanned them. "They're human."

"You sure?" Psycho Red asked. "Humans don't do this crap to each other."

"Naïve," Psycho Blue spoke disdainfully. "So ignorant. This has been going on for decades. Diamonds are big business in the Western world. What do they care how the diamonds are attained?"

"Let's send these bastards a message," Psycho Yellow snarled. She violently discharged green electricity at one of the African soldiers, striking him in the arm. The soldier jerked and whirled in pain, looking for who had so grievously injured him but shooting wildly. The other soldiers alternately dodged their compatriot's wild fire and opened fire on the Psycho Rangers, who easily evaded their shots and trounced the soldiers at super-speed.

It ended with Psycho Blue holding his axe blade to a soldier's throat. "You don't do this to your people anymore. Understand?" The soldier responded with something vulgar in the Sierra Tigris language, and Blue retaliated by knocking him unconscious.

"You're free now," Psycho Red declared. "These guys and whoever they're working for won't bother you anymore."

The miners looked fearfully at Psycho Red, a fearfulness that increased when the other Psycho Rangers flanked him. Psycho Blue removed his helmet, revealing his face. "Please," Blue said, his voice normal, "do not fear us. We are not here to harm you."

The miners looked at Shango somewhat skeptically, but seemed to be contemplating something other than fear. Finally, one of them spoke, just two words. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. Go now. You are free."

_

* * *

XIPHOS Base_

* * *

The Psycho Rangers returned to the XIPHOS Base, where Director Lockhart and Deputy Sakurai were waiting for them. Director Lockhart looked at them amusedly. "You don't have to stay in those suits," she remarked. 

"How do we take them off, then?" Psycho Yellow asked.

"Code phrase: Reverse Trigger," Director Lockhart replied.

"We won't be naked, will we?" This came from Psycho Black.

"No, you will be in the clothes you were wearing prior to the activation of your Ranger powers," Deputy Sakurai explained.

"All right, then," Psycho Yellow said. She held her left hand up in a manner that had her fingertips pointing at her visor. "Reverse Trigger!" Yellow light flashed from her visor and gauntlet, connecting briefly before dispersing into the entirety of her suit and fading away, taking the suit with it and revealing the yellow sports bra and black jogging shorts she'd been wearing before morphing. "Wow . . ."

"Tingly, huh?" Deputy Sakurai remarked. "The recompression of energy inside your morpher tends to feel like that, I think."

"Reverse Trigger!" the other Psycho Rangers shouted, performing the same motion Micaela had utilized. Like Micaela, they all reverted to their human states, garbed in the clothes they'd been wearing before their transformations.

"You should go to your rooms and rest," Director Lockhart advised. "Deputy Sakurai will show you to those rooms."

Sakurai nodded and gestured to the Rangers to follow her. Follow her they did, exiting the central ops room of XIPHOS Base and leaving Lockhart to coordinate the efforts of her agents. She looked to one of her operators. "Show me the Psycho Rangers' mission."

"Yes, Director," the operator replied, and the holo-screens sudden shifted to the Psycho Rangers in battle. Lockhart analyzed every last second of the footage, her brow furrowing in discontent at every reckless move Robin made as Psycho Red. Overall, the Rangers had performed quite well, in Lockhart's estimate, but it was Achala's quick thinking as Psycho Pink that had ultimately won the day.

_

* * *

XIPHOS Base – Next morning, 0800 hours_

* * *

Almost everyone in the base was awake, emphasis on "almost." There was one holdout, and that holdout was still in bed, garbed in a sleeveless white T-shirt with red shoulders and neckline and gray pants with thick red stripes running down the outer legs. Naturally, this did not make Ceres Lockhart a very happy woman. Nor did it make any of this holdout's teammates very happy people. 

Ceres looked at Miyuki Sakurai. "Get Mr. Murphy out of bed and in here. Now." She emphasized "now" with a sickly sweet tone in her voice.

Miyuki nodded and departed for Robin's quarters, while Ceres turned to the other four Psycho Rangers, who were all dressed in special XIPHOS uniforms. Those uniforms consisted essentially of black waist-length jackets fastened by three buckles instead of by a zipper or by buttons and black pants with black combat boots. Their morphers were securely attached to their left wrists and they all wore shirts dyed in their respective Ranger colors beneath their jackets, which were also accented by their Ranger colors. The symbol of XIPHOS, a globe surrounded by three atomic rings with a double helix in the center, was a silver badge on the left breasts of their jackets.

"I'm glad you could make it," Ceres greeted. "Now, let's get down to business."

* * *

End Notes: Doesn't look too good for Robin. Not only is he not making friends with the other Psycho Rangers, his work ethic so far is impressing no one. Whether he'll be able to work through those issues in time to help the other Psycho Rangers – and XIPHOS – save the world from the invaders hiding among the planet's population is something you'll just have to wait and see in the next chapters. In the meantime, let me know what you thought of this one. 


	6. Ground Zero: Contortion Split

"Power Rangers Psycho Impulse"

Book 1: "Ground Zero"

Chapter 6: "Contortion Split"

Disclaimer: The Psycho Rangers don't belong to me. Everyone and everything else does.

Author's note: All right, so the Psycho Rangers got through their first fight. Of course, Robin isn't exactly winning the affection or respect of either his fellow Rangers or his superiors. How will that affect his ability to work with the team in order to save the world? And what do these extraterrestrial invaders want? For the answers to those questions and further plot developments, read on.

_

* * *

XIPHOS Base, Robin's quarters – 0800 hours_

* * *

Robin was still sleeping when the door to his quarters opened. Of course, he was so deep in sleep he barely even heard the door slide open. He did feel the hand tugging strongly and insistently on his shoulder, though. He groaned, "Do I have to, Mom? I'm not taking any summer classes." 

"I'm not your mother," a female voice answered curtly.

Robin's eyes opened and he saw XIPHOS Deputy Miyuki Sakurai looking at him sternly. He smiled. "Heh. If you're going to wake me up from now on, I might just start enjoying getting up this early in the morning."

Miyuki glared at him. "Don't flirt. Just get clean and get dressed."

"Aye-aye, lieutenant commander," Robin retorted lightly with a click of his tongue. He got out of bed and threw on a robe, exiting his quarters and heading for the showers.

_

* * *

XIPHOS Base, Central Ops Room – 0830 hours_

* * *

Robin entered the central ops room of the XIPHOS base, wearing the same uniform as the other Rangers but with a red shirt and red trim on his jacket. Unlike the other Rangers, his jacket was unbuckled and his shirt had come partly un-tucked, not to mention that his hair was still slightly damp, making it look even darker than normal. He didn't miss the disdainful expressions the others, including Director Ceres Lockhart, threw his way. He returned those looks with a defiant glare, as though challenging them to make something of it. Fortunately for him, his morpher was securely affixed to his left wrist. 

"Mr. Murphy, glad you could finally deign to join us," Ceres greeted.

"Nice seeing you, too, boss lady," Robin rejoined.

"As I was telling your comrades, I reviewed your performance and as a group, you are most satisfactory," Ceres answered. "However, individually, there are some problems." She looked directly at Robin. "Such as your recklessness. You charged straight into a fight without properly assessing the situation first. That sort of behavior tends to get people killed."

"Didn't have time to assess," Robin replied. "Besides, they were bad guys. Wasting time assessing gets people killed, too, you know."

"And not assessing before you start a fight gets even more people killed, you know," Ceres retorted, mocking the Red Psycho Ranger with the last part of her statement.

Robin gritted his teeth in anger. "I don't have to take this!"

"If you intend to remain as a Psycho Ranger, you will 'take this,'" Ceres answered. "You will 'take this' so that you can learn how to be more effective as a XIPHOS operative and as a Ranger. Another thing I was telling your comrades is that I've decided who your leader will be."

"Who?" Robin asked.

"Ms. Chandra will be your leader for the duration of this venture," Ceres replied.

"_Her?!_" Robin was simultaneously aghast and irate.

"Because she demonstrated the skills necessary for a leader. She was able to think on her feet in a manner that allowed you to win that first battle. And I trust her far more than I trust you, at this stage. Therefore, she leads."

Robin clenched his fists so tightly that his nails were digging into his palms. He gritted his teeth so furiously that they were on the verge of grinding against each other, much more grinding each other into powder. His muscles were tightening and tensing with fury, while his eyes betrayed the mindset of a man who was ready to snap. Finally, he turned on his heel and shoved past the other Rangers and anyone else in his path, storming out of the central ops room.

"That went well," Ceres remarked.

"What do we do now?" Achala asked.

"The four of you will go to the AR training room," Ceres replied. "Deputy Sakurai will show you there."

Miyuki nodded and turned to the four Rangers. "Follow me, please."

_

* * *

XIPHOS Base, Robin's quarters_

* * *

Robin was furiously beating the stuffing out of his pillows. "Damn her! Who does she think she is?! I'm just as good as any of them!" He grabbed one of his pillows and threw it up at the ceiling, ready to strike it when gravity pulled it back down. When he did that, something unexpected happened. 

That unexpected something was crimson flame bursting out of Robin's fist and incinerating the pillow. Robin looked at his now-smoking hand in surprise. "What the hell?"

He concentrated, trying to summon up the flame again. The flame formed around his fist at his mental summons. He tried it with his other fist and the flame formed around that as well. He willed the flame away, leaving himself with smoking hands. "This . . . is awesome."

_Now to prove to those stuck-up b-tards that I deserve to be leader,_ Robin thought. He sat in front of the personal computer provided for his quarters by XIPHOS and turned it on. Once it was fully online, he began tapping into the XIPHOS satellites to monitor the planet for any alien sieges. Soon enough, he found a set of coordinates pointing to sub-Saharan Africa, where humans were being forced to dig for precious minerals by a cadre of soldiers, both native and foreign. By using the infrared option on the satellites, he could tell that the body heat the foreign soldiers were emitting was too high for them to be human.

Robin quickly shut off his PC and tore out of his quarters, heading for the hangar. He jumped on his hovercycle and revved it up, riding out of the XIPHOS base and heading straight for the coordinates he'd seen on the holo-screen of his computer. He accelerated to hypersonic to expedite his trip, slowing down only once he neared those coordinates.

_

* * *

Sub-Saharan Africa_

* * *

He got off his hovercycle and ran the rest of the way, morphing into Psycho Red and speeding toward the soldiers in a red-lit motion blur. When he stopped, he had already sliced through several of the foreign soldiers, the spurts of black-blue blood proving their biological inhumanity. The others attempted to attack him with their rifles, but Psycho Red deflected their blasts with his Psycho Sword, which he charged with crimson flame to enhance its blade's strength and sharpness. When the soldiers – both human and alien – attempted to strike him with their rifles, Psycho Red sliced their rifles in half with inhuman celerity. 

"You're going to have to do better than this," he sneered, blasting several foreign soldiers with the crimson fire energy. While the blast didn't kill them, it certainly injured them, enough that they literally ripped themselves free of their human forms, revealing their true draconic hominid forms.

The native soldiers backed away in horror. "What are you?!" one of them asked.

"Your masters," one of the draconic hominids answered.

"You devils are not our masters!" another of the native soldiers shouted, attempting to attack the draconic hominids. For his trouble, he was incinerated by an energy attack from one of the alien hominids.

"Who are you?" Psycho Red asked.

"We are the Slypha," the apparent leader of the draconic hominids replied. "And we are going to kill you, insipid human."

"I don't think so!" Psycho Red retorted, leaping into the air. He charged his sword with crimson electrical energy and swung it in a downward arc, a downward arc that came down to slice through several of the Slyphains. When he landed, he sliced through another with superhuman swiftness.

"Get him!" another Slyphain roared.

The Slyphains moved to attack Psycho Red, while the native soldiers attempted to help Psycho Red fight the Slyphains. Psycho Red looked at the soldiers and shouted, "I'll be fine! You want to help, you free those people!"

_

* * *

XIPHOS Base, Central Ops Room_

* * *

Ceres watched the screens with a great deal of displeasure in her eyes, despite how calm her face looked. She tapped into the intercom to call the other four Psycho Rangers into the ops room. They responded quite quickly, moving in motion blurs lit in their respective colors and stopping to reveal their human forms. 

"What is it?" Achala asked.

"Our Red Ranger has taken it upon himself to start a fight with one of the invading factions taking up residence on this planet," Ceres replied. "Help him finish it, or at least not get himself killed."

Shango groaned. "Damn him."

"He's still a Ranger and Rangers don't stand by while another Ranger is in danger," Achala said.

"True," Alaric agreed.

"Yeah," Micaela said. "Even if I can't stand the prick."

"Let's go," Achala ordered her teammates, all four tearing away in motion blurs lit in their respective colors.

_

* * *

Sub-Saharan Africa_

* * *

Psycho Red had his hands full with the Slyphains, who seemed to be as persistent as they were strong. Psycho Red generated a red energy flash to blast them off him, but they recovered too fast and were soon on him again. The twisted Red Ranger teleported away from them and reemerged behind them, stabbing his sword into the ground and channeling energy through it to blast them. Several of the Slyphains did recover and attempt to attack him, with Psycho Red fighting them off to the best of his ability. 

Suddenly, pink, blue, black, and yellow motion blurs arrived on the scene, circling the Slyphains and attacking them at high speed. The blurs stopped beside Psycho Red, revealing that they were the other Psycho Rangers in morphed state.

"This was very foolish of you, Robin," Psycho Blue rebuked.

"I don't care what you think," Psycho Red retorted. "These guys are going for perm-necro!"

"We fight as a team," Psycho Pink said. "Do you hear me? _A team._"

"Fine," Psycho Red grumbled. "As long as these guys get taken down."

"What happened to the humans here?" Psycho Black asked.

"The soldiers saw for themselves what these b-tards really were and decided to err on the side of their fellow humans," Psycho Red replied.

"Then let's deal with these guys," Psycho Yellow said.

"You think so, human wench?" a Slyphain asked. "Dranzins!"

Suddenly, a horde of even more monstrous draconic hominids emerged from warps in the air. They stood hunched over and were drooling with bloodlust. Their tails thrashed the air and their claws clenched and unclenched with murderous intent.

"What are those things?" Psycho Yellow asked.

"Our shock troops," the leading Slyphain replied. "We're going to let them deal with you now." At that moment, the Slyphain troops disappeared through emerging space warps that "swallowed" them.

"Aren't we in for it now?" Psycho Black asked sardonically.

* * *

End Notes: There we have it. The Psycho Rangers seem to be in real trouble now. Will they be able to fight their way out of it? Will Robin redeem himself before his teammates? For the answers to those questions and others, read on and let me know what you thought of this installment. 


	7. Ground Zero: Warped Caller

"Power Rangers Psycho Impulse"

Book 1: "Ground Zero"

Chapter 7: "Warped Caller"

Disclaimer: The Psycho Rangers belong to Disney/Saban. Everything and everyone else belongs to me.

Author's notes: There you have it, the Psycho Rangers' first fight against the more-or-less traditional mindless grunts that emerge in every Power Rangers/Super Sentai series. More importantly, will the Psycho Rangers be able to properly cohere as a team in order to beat this monstrous horde? For the answer to that one, read on.

_

* * *

Sub-Saharan Africa_

* * *

The Psycho Rangers brought out their weapons, ready to use them against the ferocious Dranzins, who began to attack. Psycho Red began slicing through Dranzins with his Psycho Sword, but the creatures proved to be stronger, tougher, and faster than he expected . . . not to mention more savage than he expected. A slash from one of them sent him tumbling to the ground, only for him to roll onto his feet and resume the fight. Psycho Blue was spinning at super-speed, slashing Dranzins with his Psycho Axe, only for one of the Dranzins to catch his wrist and throw him at a tree. The Dranzin's throw was so powerful that Psycho Blue's forcibly propelled body shattered the tree and he landed on the ground. Psycho Black stabbed his Psycho Rod into the ground and he used it as a fulcrum to rotate on while he kicked the Dranzins that were circling around him. He ultimately landed on the ground and pulled his rod out of the ground, swinging it around for a green electricity-fueled strike that felled several Dranzins. 

Psychos Yellow and Pink stood back to back, firing their respective weapons at the attacking Dranzins. Despite their best efforts, and the best efforts of their male comrades, the Dranzins simply kept coming, driven by the basic impulse to kill, to rend, to destroy. With angry howls, the Dranzins piled onto the Psycho Rangers, tearing at them with their claws. Psycho Red unleashed a burst of red fire that threw the attacking Dranzins off him and incinerated them. Psycho Blue generated icy blue energy scythe blades that cut through the Dranzins attacking him, while Psycho Black sent shockwaves through the ground via his Psycho Rod, taking down even more Dranzins. Psychos Yellow and Pink fired bursts of gold and green electricity at the Dranzin assault force, cremating them as well.

"They're still coming!" Psycho Black shouted.

"Don't these guys know when to quit?!" Psycho Red asked. "Never mind. I'll show them when. I'll show them with their own heads!" His visor glowing with malevolent red fire, Psycho Red shifted into "redline time," moving so fast that he was nothing but a luminous red blur and killing his way through the remaining Dranzins. His frenzied attack was stopped only by a vicious strike from a Dranzin, which sent him colliding with the ground. Psycho Red attempted to block the next strike, but it came too forcefully and he was knocked back.

Psychos Blue and Black jumped in front of Psycho Red and used their weapons to block further attacks from the Dranzins, only to be knocked aside. Psychos Yellow and Pink fired their weapons at the savage horde, only for the Dranzins to be undeterred in their assault on Psycho Red. The Yellow and Pink Psycho Rangers sped in front of the Red Psycho Ranger to block the attack, only to also be knocked aside.

Just as the Dranzins were upon him, Psycho Red rose to his feet and blasted them back with a red energy that resembled both lightning and fire. "They . . . they protected me. When I gave them no reason at all to like me." He chuckled. "Maybe this won't be so bad after all." He slammed his primary hand on the ground and sent a shockwave of lightning and flame through it, blasting the recovering Dranzins.

"I don't know if I can call them my friends, but they cared enough to try to protect me. That's good enough for me, and it's time I returned the favor."

Psycho Red was a blur of determined fury, slicing through any Dranzins that tried to get at his comrades with savage relish. When he wasn't slicing them with his sword, he was blasting them with the red energy unique to him. As he fought, the other Psycho Rangers watched him with amazement.

"There's purpose to his moves now," Blue observed.

"Yeah," Yellow agreed.

"Think we ought to help?" Black asked.

"He's a Ranger," Pink replied. "We help."

The other Psycho Rangers rose to their feet and joined the fray. "I have an idea," Pink said.

"What?" Black asked.

"We combine our energies like we did before," Pink replied.

"Think that can work?" Red asked. "Never mind, it's you. Of course it'll work."

"I'm glad for the vote of confidence," Pink remarked.

The five Psycho Rangers rallied together, surrounding Red but with Pink as the true center. They summoned their energies as vaguely spherical concentrations of lightning-like energy mixed with their unique powers. They combined those energies into one powerful force projectile that incinerated the last of the Dranzins.

"Wow . . . we did it," Psycho Red uttered.

"By working together," Psycho Blue added.

"We should be checking on those people," Psycho Pink said.

"You're right," Psycho Red agreed. "Let's roll."

The Psycho Rangers sped away to find the humans that had been forced to dig for precious minerals, as well as the human soldiers that had been used to oversee that forced labor. When they found them, the former laborers were hard at work restoring their homes, while the soldiers were elsewhere. Psycho Blue found one of those soldiers and asked, "Why were you doing this?"

"Civil war," the soldier replied. "We sell diamonds to the Westerners to fund our efforts."

"And does that blood money justify what you do to your own people?!" Psycho Red asked irately.

"Shut up," the soldier snapped at Psycho Red. "You're just a pampered American who doesn't know what it's like to suffer under a tyrant's rule."

"That doesn't mean I don't have a sense of right and wrong!" Psycho Red retorted. "And this is wrong! Forcing your own people to labor until they're near-dead from exhaustion?! That's wrong!"

"It helps us to survive," the soldier stated. "And what are you going to do? How do you intend to make this right? Or are you just going to leave once your mission is over with? Go back to whatever comfortable upper-class enclave you live in?"

Psycho Red bristled with anger, but Psycho Blue put a calming hand on his shoulder. "Do not hurt your people like this," Shango said. "Fighting a tyrant does not justify destroying the lives of the people you say you are trying to liberate."

_

* * *

XIPHOS Base, Central Ops Room_

* * *

The Psycho Rangers returned to the XIPHOS base, with Ceres perfectly ready to chew out Robin. To her surprise, Robin had his head bowed, and when he looked up at her, his eyes were humbler. "I'm sorry. What I did was wrong, reckless, disrespectful, and immature." 

"I'm glad you realize that," Ceres replied, but her voice had little in the way of actual derision.

"I would like it very much if Robin were to stay as Psycho Red," Achala said. "He defended us."

"Really?" Ceres asked.

"Really," Micaela confirmed. "Granted, I still find him to be an arrogant, presumptuous prick, but he came through for us."

"All right, then," Ceres said, turning to Alaric and Shango. "And you? What do you say?"

"He is arrogant and presumptuous, as Micaela said, but I believe he has a good heart beneath that exterior," Shango replied.

"I'm with him," Alaric agreed.

"Consider yourself lucky, Mr. Murphy," Ceres said. "You get to stay on as Psycho Red, but under these conditions. You will be prompt whenever your presence is required, you will work within the team, and you will follow my directions here or Ms. Chandra's directions on the field. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Director," Robin replied humbly. "But . . . may I say something?"

"What is it?" Ceres asked.

"One of the invading groups calls themselves Slypha," Robin replied. "They're the hideous dragon-looking guys."

"And the birds?" Ceres prompted.

"Not there," Robin answered.

"All right," Ceres said. "It appears your recklessness had one side benefit, after all. At least we know the name of one of our enemies. Just one more condition."

Robin looked at Ceres warily. "What is it, Director?"

Ceres returned that look with a stern gaze. "If you're going to wear that uniform, wear it properly. That means you buckle the jacket and you tuck in the shirt. If you want to go with an unbuckled jacket and un-tucked shirt, you may do that when you're off-duty."

Robin nodded. "I can live with that."

"All right, then." Ceres looked at all five Psycho Rangers. "You're dismissed."

_

* * *

XIPHOS Base, Psycho Impulse Monitor Chamber_

* * *

Once the Rangers left the central ops room, Ceres walked into the chamber where the Psycho Impulse, the unique crystal that housed the core of the Psycho Ranger powers, was being monitored. "Director, there is something we did not anticipate in the Psycho Ranger energies," one of the scientists said. 

"What is it?" Ceres asked.

The scientist monitoring the Red Psycho Morpher's energies looked warily at the readout on his screen. "Shortly after Mr. Murphy accessed the Psycho Red powers, he exhibited a neurological chemical imbalance, specifically abnormally high levels of aggression-inducing chemicals." The scientist accessed the video image of Psycho Red's brutally swift attack upon the Dranzins, only to rewind to the point that Psycho Red's visor literally glowed with his murderous intent. "It was at this point that the increase in brain activity associated with aggression reached its zenith, fueling the savagery of that attack you witnessed."

"What about the other Rangers?" Ceres asked. "Did this happen to them, too?"

"No," the scientist monitoring the Pink Psycho Morpher's energies replied. "However, we did notice higher-than-normal levels of brain activity associated with aggression in all of them. It was only with Mr. Murphy that such brain activity led to violence." She paused. "Well, greater violence than they would normally have to commit."

Ceres pondered that for several moments. "Keep working on it. See if you can find a way to counter the Psycho Morphers' aggression induction. We can't have Rangers going on slaughter sprees."

"Yes, Director," the scientist monitoring the Psycho Pink energies affirmed.

_

* * *

XIPHOS Base, Central Ops Room_

* * *

Ceres walked back into the central ops room to coordinate the efforts of XIPHOS. As concerned as she was for her Rangers, she had to keep on top of things. She couldn't afford to have everything she'd worked for be demolished just because she couldn't keep herself together. 

"Director?" Miyuki asked.

"Not here, Deputy," Ceres replied. "My office."

* * *

End Notes: It seems that the Psycho Rangers are starting to cohere better and Robin seems to be beginning to change his attitude toward the others. Of course, what's up with their morphers increasing their aggression and can it carry over to their civilian forms if that's the case? And who's pulling the strings behind the Slyphains and the birdlike hominids, anyway? Well, you'll get those questions answered soon enough. In the meantime, let me know what you thought of this latest installment. 


	8. Ground Zero: Crooked Crier

"Power Rangers Psycho Impulse"

Book 1: "Ground Zero"

Chapter 8: "Crooked Crier"

Disclaimer: The Psycho Rangers belong to Disney/Saban. Everyone and everything else is mine.

Author's notes: I think it's time I began to reveal the faces behind the invasion of Earth. We already know the name of one faction, but what about the other set of invaders? And why are they fighting in the first place, anyway? And how will the Psycho Rangers deal with them and each other? For the answers to those questions and others, read on.

_

* * *

Seattle, Washington_

* * *

A plasmetal-and-reinforced glass spire stood tall in what seemed to be the center of the metropolitan area of the city. Distinguishing this spire was a golden globe positioned on top and the sign "Ziktor Industries" wrapped around the equator of that globe. Indeed, this was the corporate headquarters of Ziktor Industries and inside its main office was the man who owned it, Ezekiel Ziktor. 

Ezekiel Ziktor was a handsome man in his late thirties, nearing forty, though one would not know it from the aura of vigor and vitality he emitted. Always dressed sharply and groomed neatly, Ziktor was known as America's "Most Eligible Bachelor," and many women wanted to be the one whom Ziktor took into his confidence – and his heart. Of course, if certain secrets of his got out, even they wouldn't want to be anywhere near him.

At the moment, he was meeting with General Davis Ulysses, discussing certain active projects of Ziktor Industries. Ziktor's company was a research and development firm specializing in biotechnology and cybernetics. The company's professed goal was to crack the secrets of the human genome and thus put a permanent end to disease and other infirmities by engineering them out of the human genetic code. Of course, no one knew what Ziktor really was doing, let alone that this man was not really Ziktor.

"General Ulysses, what seems to be the problem?" Ziktor asked.

"Rangers," Ulysses replied.

"I trust the Rangers you speak of are Army Rangers," Ziktor said, his tone hardening.

"No." Ulysses paused only briefly to gather his thoughts before continuing. "Psycho Rangers."

"Psycho Rangers?" Ziktor echoed, disbelieving. "They're dead. Two teams of Power Rangers killed them."

"That's true, but some humans found a way to use their powers," Ulysses replied. "Our troops were defeated by five human youths using morphers that allowed them to access the Psycho Ranger energies. They decimated the forces we deployed into the continent of Africa."

Ziktor narrowed his eyes. "Damn it. Aramakar, their interference cannot be brooked any further. It will mean the end of everything we've worked for."

Ulysses nodded in understanding. "I understand. The upside is that in their first appearance, they also killed the Obrakons our troops were fighting at the time."

Ziktor smiled slowly. "That is good news. The Obrakons will be looking to eliminate the Psycho Rangers as well. In the meantime, we're going to keep those brats from interfering with us."

"How do you propose we do that, Synthanas?" Ulysses asked.

Ziktor chuckled. "I've already engineered the perfect tools to distract them."

_

* * *

XIPHOS Base Training Room, New York City, New York_

* * *

In the AR environment generated by the training room, Robin was fighting several Dranzins. He was unmorphed, but that didn't mean he couldn't tap into some of his Psycho Ranger energies. In fact, he was darting from place to place in red-lit blurs of motion, evading their attacks and retaliating with attacks of his own. He kicked one Dranzin in the abdomen and twirled into the air into an attack upon more Dranzins, firing a blast of red fiery energy at them. He landed in their midst and began fighting them hand-to-hand, enhancing his blows with the red energy. 

Around him, the other Rangers were fighting Dranzins as well. Shango calculated speed, distance, and time as he fought, using his calculations to evade and attack with a precision that was not lost on his comrades. Alaric channeled his Psycho energies into his fists, enhancing his blows as he seemed more focused on overpowering the Dranzins than on outthinking them. Micaela raced around in a yellow blur of light and speed, downing Dranzins in her path. Achala did likewise, the two girls moving in the pattern of a double helix as they took out their foes.

Finally, the simulation ended with the Dranzins defeated. "We did it!" Robin shouted.

"_Yes, but the only ones who were using any kind of teamwork were Ms. Nunes and Ms. Chandra,_" Miyuki's voice spoke over the intercom.

"We won, didn't we?" Alaric asked.

"_You win as a team, or you fall as a team,_" Miyuki answered. "_That is what being Rangers is about. You do not go it alone._"

"All right, all right, we get it," Robin grumbled.

"_No, you don't get it,_" Miyuki retorted. "_You think you get it, which is completely not the same as actually getting it. Get it?_"

"Quit the riddles!" Robin shouted.

Shango sighed. "I think she is trying to tell us something, Robin."

"Then she should just come right out and tell us!" Robin yelled.

"Then you would not value what you learned," Shango replied sagely. "No one values what they are instantly given. They value it more when they must work for it."

Robin muttered something under his breath.

"_All right, you five are done for now; hit the showers,_" Miyuki ordered.

The five obediently exited the AR training room and went to the shower area of XIPHOS Base. Miyuki watched them leave and remembered what Ceres had told her three-and-a-half weeks ago. The thing that stuck in her mind most was what Ceres had said about the future prospects of the Rangers if they continued to use the Psycho Morphers.

"_The seesawing between hyper-aggressive brain activity and calm brain activity could potentially result in one of several neurological and psychological disorders. Bipolar personality, for one. Clinical depression, for another. Psychosis, for a third. Dementia, for a –_"

"_I get it!_" Miyuki had shouted, deeply disturbed by what Ceres had been telling her.

But the fact remained; something had corrupted the Psycho Impulse, the source of the Psycho Rangers' power, and it was slowly altering the Rangers' minds. The effects were negligible now, but they wouldn't be so negligible indefinitely. Eventually, they would get worse and in turn, the Rangers' behavior would grow dangerously unpredictable.

_And we're counting on these kids to save the world,_ Miyuki thought grimly.

_

* * *

XIPHOS Base Lounge – one hour later_

* * *

Robin was watching a music channel, which was playing a heavy metal song. He had the volume turned up and with surround sound, just so he could "rock out" better to it. At the moment, he was head-banging and leaping around like he was in a mosh pit. 

"As much as your gyrations amuse, could you _please turn it down?!_" Micaela asked.

"What was that?!" Robin shouted, moving to turn down the music to a less earsplitting volume.

"As much as your gyrations amuse, could you please turn it down?" Micaela repeated.

"I just did," Robin answered. "What is it? Wanna talk? I'm all ears."

"Not really. Just wanted you to turn down that deafening noise you call music so I could have some peace."

"Oh, ok." Robin slumped onto a couch and began channel surfing.

After Micaela left, Alaric entered. "Hey, why'd you stop the music?"

"Micaela found it too noisy. I'm trying to do that newfangled thing the kids are into called 'respecting other people's feelings.'"

"Good man. Um, I've gotta tell you something."

"Tell me what?"

"I'm getting kind of antsy in here," Alaric admitted.

"So am I," Robin agreed. "But why don't you tell Achala? She's the leader, after all."

"She's kind of . . . I don't know . . . frigid," Alaric confessed.

"What gives you that impression?" Robin's tone was sarcastic. "The fact that she doesn't like to talk to any of us, except maybe Micaela? The fact that she spends most of her free time in her room on her PC?"

"I get it." Alaric sighed. "I just wish we could get out and do something."

Robin grinned. "Maybe we can."

"You serious?" Alaric asked.

"Yeah," Robin replied. "Who says we can't?"

_

* * *

New York City, New York_

* * *

"Now this . . . this is living!" Robin declared. 

"You have the words," Alaric agreed. "I never knew America had such sights."

The two young men, garbed in casual civilian wear including shirts in their respective Ranger colors, were inside the crown of the Statue of Liberty, looking out at the city from their perch. "This is pretty cool, isn't it?" Robin said.

"Indeed," Alaric agreed. "But I want to experience the city from inside, not from outside."

"Let's go," Robin said, turning to exit the Statue of Liberty's crown through the stairway with Alaric following. Once out of the Statue of Liberty, the boys got on the ferry that would take them back to the mainland. Once on the mainland, they began walking down the city streets, Robin leading Alaric to the comic store.

"A comic store?" Alaric asked.

"Yeah, man," Robin confirmed.

Just as they were about to enter, they heard an explosion and screams of terror. "Rain check on the comic store?"

"I do not know what you mean by 'rain check,' but we have to see what that is," Alaric replied.

"That's what I was saying," Robin confirmed. Just as he was about to morph, Alaric caught his wrist.

"We can't morph in public," Alaric hissed lowly.

"Then we speed-morph," Robin replied. "We'll be out of here and over where we need to be before anyone can see us."

Alaric nodded in concession. "Let's move."

Robin and Alaric channeled the Psycho energies into super-speed so great that they might as well have been invisible. When they neared the location of the explosion, they saw people running away in terror, albeit in perceptual slow motion due to their speed. Knowing they would see what those people were running from soon, the boys didn't bother to stop to ask. When they did stop, they were fully morphed as Psycho Red and Psycho Black.

That was when they saw the source of the explosion, a creature that looked somewhat like a minotaur with extensive and massive cybernetic implants. "What the hell is that?!" Psycho Red asked.

"Man-o-Taurus!" the cyber-minotaur roared. "And you, Psycho Rangers, are finished!"

Red and Black drew their respective sword and rod. "We'll see," Psycho Black retorted.

_

* * *

XIPHOS Base, Central Ops Room_

* * *

Ceres was in the central ops room watching the screens with a calm expression that did not betray her unsettled feelings. Some sort of cyborg monstrosity was rampaging through the city . . . and Psychos Red and Black were already on the scene, which meant one thing. Robin and Alaric had sneaked out of the base. Without another thought, she called in Shango, Micaela, and Achala. 

"Yes, Director?" Achala asked.

"Mr. Murphy and Mr. Schroeder have already engaged the creature," Ceres replied. "However, they could use your help. Give them that help, before that creature kills them."

"Yes, Director," Achala affirmed.

* * *

End Notes: That's a good point to end this on. Robin and Alaric just wanted to have some fun and now they're in a world of trouble, speaking not just of the monster they're facing. Will the Psycho Rangers together be able to defeat this menace or will they have bitten off more than they can chew? And what about the Obrakons? When will they strike? For the answers to those questions and others, read on and let me know what you thought of this installment. 


	9. Ground Zero: Distortion Matrix

"Power Rangers Psycho Impulse"

Book 1: "Ground Zero"

Chapter 9: "Distortion Matrix"

Disclaimer: The Psycho Rangers belong to Disney/Saban. Everyone and everything else is mine.

Author's note: The Psycho Rangers are now battling their first "monster of the day." Will they figure out what the monster's real purpose is? Will they be killed by that monster? And what of the plans of "Ziktor" and "Ulysses"? For the answers to those questions and others, read on.

_

* * *

New York City, New York_

* * *

Man-o-Taurus charged Psychos Red and Black, catching Red first on the ends of his horns and pushing him back. Red grabbed the horns on which he was virtually impaled and sent a charge of red lightning through them, blasting Man-o-Taurus off him. As Man-o-Taurus unwillingly flew backward, Psycho Black slashed him with his Psycho Rod. 

Man-o-Taurus rolled on the street before rising to his feet. The cyber-beast roared furiously and charged Psycho Black, who swiftly dodged and blasted him with green electricity. The beast simply roared and went after Psycho Black again, only for Psycho Red to leap off Psycho Black's shoulders and kick the beast. Unfortunately for Red, Man-o-Taurus grabbed his ankle and brutally threw him aside to charge Black.

Just as Black was prepared to defend himself, Shango, Micaela, and Achala arrived on their hovercycles. "Should have known you two would get yourselves in trouble," Micaela derided lightly.

"Whatever," Psycho Red said, rising to his feet. "Just morph and pitch in already."

"As we were already thinking of doing," Achala answered, raising her Psycho Morpher. Shango and Micaela raised their morphers as well. The trio performed the "necessary" arm and hand motions, while shouting the activation code phrase for their morphers. Upon finishing, they pressed the buttons that would activate their morphers, instantaneously transforming into Psychos Pink, Blue, and Yellow.

"More Rangers for me to crush!" Man-o-Taurus roared.

"No," Psycho Blue answered. "More Rangers to crush you."

Psycho Blue drew his axe and launched into his signature super-speed spinning attack. Unfortunately, Man-o-Taurus caught his wrist and drew the kinetic energy from his spin into himself, using it to amplify his strength in order to throw Psycho Blue through a building. The throw was so strong that Psycho Blue crashed through the back wall of the building.

Psychos Yellow and Pink fired their respective weapons at Man-o-Taurus, who charged them in spite of the energy bursts and energy arrows. The two female Rangers continued firing until Man-o-Taurus was upon them, at which point they jumped into the air and fired from midair. They landed on the ground and maintained their fire, at which point Psycho Red slashed Man-o-Taurus with his sword.

Psycho Black launched himself into the air and came down striking Man-o-Taurus with his rod. Unfortunately, Man-o-Taurus just brutally batted him aside, knocking him into a parked car, the car crumpling around him upon impact. Psycho Black forced himself out of the wreckage of the car to resume the fight, while Psycho Blue reemerged to join them.

"We really need to find a better way to fight this guy," Psycho Red said.

"You're right," Psycho Pink said. "We should combine our weapons."

"How?" Psycho Yellow asked.

"Like so," Psycho Blue replied, taking Psycho Black's rod and attaching his axe to its pronged end, the prongs locking around the shaft of the axe.

"What are you doing?" Psycho Black asked.

"You'll see," Blue replied. "Red, your sword."

"Sure," Psycho Red replied, tossing the twisted Blue Ranger his sword. Psycho Blue caught it and attached the Psycho Sword to the back end of the Psycho Rod, completing what seemed to be a double-ended staff weapon that could serve as either a sword or an axe.

"The Psycho Halberd," Psycho Blue declared. He sped at Man-o-Taurus and slashed him with the now-electrified weapon. He slashed first with the sword end of the weapon and then followed up with the axe end of the weapon, eliciting a cry of pain from the beast. Psycho Blue spun the weapon at super-speed, slashing Man-o-Taurus repeatedly with the sword and axe ends of the weapons. The wounded Man-o-Taurus stumbled back from him.

"Now let's finish this," Psycho Pink said, tossing Psycho Blue her bow, which he attached to the underside of the connecting point between the back end of the Psycho Rod and the Psycho Sword. Psycho Yellow joined her sling to the end of the rod from which the twin prongs extended.

"Sweet, if a little mismatched," Psycho Red commented, picking up the new combination weapon and pointing it at Man-o-Taurus. The other Psycho Rangers flanked him, supporting both him and the weapon. The five channeled their energies into the weapon . . . and those energies were released through its sword end as a blast of red fire, blue ice, earthen black energy, yellow lightning, and dark pink petals, with green electricity surrounding all of those elements. The power of the blast was too much for even Man-o-Taurus to absorb and the cybernetic beast exploded in a shower of circuits, electricity, and fire.

_

* * *

XIPHOS Base, Central Ops Room_

* * *

"What did you two think you were doing sneaking out?" Ceres asked Robin and Alaric. 

"We were antsy from being cooped up," Alaric replied.

"Antsy, huh?" Ceres remarked.

"Yes, antsy," Robin confirmed. "We've been at this for three weeks, and we haven't been allowed to go outside except for missions. Frankly, I don't mind the missions, but I'd like a little time to go out and enjoy myself every now and again."

"He does have a point," Achala agreed somewhat reluctantly. "While there are those of us that can find relaxation within the confines of this base, there are times when even I wish to embrace the outside."

"All right," Ceres yielded. "As long as you clear it with me or Deputy Sakurai first, you can leave the base, but not indefinitely. You have to be back within a certain time limit, or else we're going to come looking for you and you won't like it."

"I think we can live with that," Robin said.

"There's something else you should know," Miyuki said.

"What is it?" Achala asked.

"While the five of you were fighting that monster, the Slyphains raided a diamond mine," Miyuki replied. "A lot of people died. Too many."

The five Rangers looked at her, appalled. "How did that happen?" Robin asked.

"That creature was a distraction," Shango concluded grimly. "The Slyphains knew we would show up to stop them unless we were kept occupied, so they sent that monster to terrorize people in this city. They knew we wouldn't let the people of this city be killed by that monster, even if we knew it was just a distraction."

"Since they know it worked, they'll try it again, unless we split up," Alaric added. "Three of us to fight the monsters and two to fight the Slyphains, or switch the numbers."

"That won't work," Ceres cut in. "We cannot afford to have your focus divided. We will simply have to come up with other ways of accomplishing what we need to do."

"Are you sure?" Micaela asked. "Because we're caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. Either we let people in the city that serves as our home base die, or we condemn those suffering most from the Slyphains' depredations to death."

"You're right," Ceres admitted. "But that's one of many hard choices we will be faced with in this venture."

"How do we make that kind of choice?" Robin wondered.

Ceres looked Robin dead in the eye. "You do. Or it's made for you." She turned to address all five Rangers. "You're dismissed."

"Yes, Director," Achala assented.

_

* * *

XIPHOS Base, Robin's room – Nightfall_

* * *

Robin lay on his bed, almost statuesque in his motionlessness. He was too busy thinking to really do anything physical. He was thinking about whether he'd live to see his mother again; he'd been lucky so far, but that luck couldn't hold up forever. He wanted to send an e-mail to her, let her know that he was all right, but he knew his e-mails would be censored to not give away anything involving the deeper intricacies of his work at XIPHOS. And it certainly wasn't going to get out that he was Psycho Red, the not-quite-leader of the Psycho Rangers. 

He heard his door chime in a tone that signaled someone wanted to come in. "Who's there?" he asked.

The computer network seamlessly woven into the very infrastructure of XIPHOS answered. "_Shango Mbeki, Psycho Blue._"

"Open door," Robin commanded.

The door slid open, revealing Shango standing at the doorway. "Robin. Would I be troubling you if I asked you permission to enter?"

"You can't trouble me any more than I'm already troubled," Robin answered. "Come in, 'fore I change my mind."

Shango stepped in and the door closed behind him. "Do you mind turning on the light?"

Robin turned in the direction of Shango's voice. "Light, thirty percent brightness."

The lights turned on, but rather dimly. "All right, what are you here for?"

"You did say you were troubled," Shango remarked.

"I am," Robin confirmed. "Damn it, man, it's like we're fighting some kind of secret war!"

"We are, but we are not unique in that respect," Shango answered. "Many of the wars fought in the world are fought in secret, especially when many governments contract military services out to private armies."

"How could these Slyphains have slipped in under our noses like this? How could people not see that these . . . _things_ aren't human?"

"Maybe because the Slyphains acted no differently than humans have been known to act in the throes of greed and power lust. I imagine the emotional spectrum is shared by all creatures that possess higher consciousness, including the baser ranges of that spectrum."

Robin chuckled briefly. "You really know how to bring things into perspective. It's . . . it's rather refreshing."

"Glad to be of service." Shango's tone was dry, with the barest hint of a smile on his face.

"You should smile more," Robin remarked. "Come to think of it, so should Achala. She'd be very pretty if she smiled – uh, not that she's not pretty already, but . . ."

Shango sighed tolerantly. "This is not a profession that lends itself to cheer. And our cultures are rather different, yours and mine and hers. Things are not done in mine in quite the same fashion as in yours, or in yours as in hers, or in hers as in mine."

_

* * *

XIPHOS Base, R&D Chamber – Midnight_

* * *

Ceres sat in the center of the research and development room, looking at holo-screen displays encircling her. Five screens – each colored red, blue, black, yellow, or pink – depicted schematics of a different fighting vehicle, all five designed to resemble creatures of some sort. A sixth screen was slate gray, showing the schematics of a suit akin to those worn by the Psycho Rangers in their morphed states. Three more screens showed armors radically different from the Psycho Ranger suits, although the first two had a greater resemblance to each other than the third. The tenth screen showed the schematics of a large car that vaguely resembled a reclining human. 

"Burning the midnight oil, aren't you?" Miyuki remarked quietly.

"We have to find a way to get these off the ground, Miyuki," Ceres replied. "Otherwise, humanity won't have a prayer."

"Even if we did, who'd wear the suits?" Miyuki asked.

"Whoever fits them best," Ceres answered simply, Miyuki's attempt at humor going completely over her head.

Miyuki swallowed a lump of nervousness in her throat. "Do we know if the technology can work?"

"We don't have time to test it. In fact, any kind of test will most likely be a field test."

"Then we should cross our fingers."

* * *

End Book One

To be continued in  
Book Two: "Count Zero"

* * *

End Notes: That ends Book One of Power Rangers Psycho Impulse. Now, I started off pretty strong on this, but I was really intending it for a challenge over at LiveJournal, which I can no longer fulfill due to having left this alone so long to focus on other projects. Anyway, I've finished this first part of my Psycho Rangers novel and you won't have to wait too long for the second part, I hope. In the meantime, I hope you let me know what you thought of this. 


	10. Count Zero: Twisted Transformer

"Power Rangers Psycho Impulse"

Book 1.5: "Count Zero"

Chapter 1: "Twisted Transformer"

Disclaimer: The general concept of Power Rangers belongs to Saban, formerly Disney, and that same concept is owed to the general concept of Super Sentai, which belongs to Toei. I only own this story and the vast majority of the characters in it, and I make no profit from this story whatsoever.

Author's note: It's been five years. I apologize for that. The truth is that I lost my spark for this story. Right now, I'm uploading the last arc I had written already for this story to prepare you for the continuation under my dear friend The Amazing Shrinking Violet. Credit goes to her, and to my last reviewer for this story, for getting me to care again, even if I don't feel that same spark I used to. This will be where the Psychos get their own Megazord. Enjoy!

* * *

_XIPHOS Base, R&D Room_

"Beautiful, aren't they?" Ceres deadpanned.

"Yes, but are you sure the Rangers can handle them?" Miyuki asked.

Ceres turned to her longtime assistant and companion. "They will simply have to learn how to do so. Fortunately, that's why we have simulators."

* * *

_XIPHOS Base, Simulation Room_

Robin was in the air; that much he knew. He was inside the cockpit of his vehicle and flying said vehicle around a platoon of enemy aircraft. He twisted around the enemy aircraft as they fired at him and returned fire. He seemed like he was winning, until a glancing blast hit his wing. He desperately tried to stay in the air, but he was quickly bleeding altitude.

"No, no, no, _no!_" Robin screamed, following with a stream of angered curses.

"_Abort simulation,_" the computer ordered. Suddenly, the sensation of falling stopped and the virtual environment faded out, replaced with matte gray. Robin stepped out of the simulator, which was a simple egg-shaped construct, and then kicked it.

"It's not the simulator's fault you crashed," Micaela remarked snidely.

"I never flew anything before!" Robin protested. "And I was flying just fine until that armada showed up!"

"Excuses, excuses." Micaela clicked her tongue. "Won't help you in the Nether."

Robin scowled.

"For all her needling, she is correct," Achala said. "You will have to learn how to adapt to and overcome enemy aircraft, or else you won't be much use in a fight."

"And how did you guys do?" Robin sneered.

"I cleared my objective," Achala replied. "How about you, Micaela?"

"I did well," Micaela replied.

Two more simulator chambers opened and out stepped Shango and Alaric, both looking winded. "And how did you two do?" Robin asked morbidly.

"I cleared mine," Alaric replied.

"I was successful as well," Shango answered.

"So I'm the only screw-up here, huh?" Robin mused bitterly.

"You need to think past your enemies, not simply attempt to overcome them physically," Shango advised. He looked at Alaric meaningfully after saying this to Robin.

"Any tips? Or are you going to spit platitudes at me?" Robin sneered.

Achala gazed at Robin. "We have been working on this for almost a month. You've improved over these past few weeks, but something is holding you back, isn't it?"

"Nothing is holding me back." Robin glared at Achala, only to look away sullenly. "I just . . . can't get the hang of this."

"You will need to get the hang of Zord piloting soon," Achala stated. "Otherwise, you will be a liability to the team."

Robin briefly graced Achala with an acrimonious stare before walking out of the simulator room. "This is total bull."

"The only bull is you," Micaela mumbled under her breath.

* * *

_New York City, U.S.A._

Out of his uniform and in a black unzipped sweatshirt over a red shirt and dark blue jeans, Robin had left XIPHOS Base for the city. He was just taking a walk to clear his head, enjoying the sights the city had to offer. He figured he would go see a movie and he knew just the one he wanted to see. It was a movie about the divergence of humanity into two separate species, one still recognizable as "baseline" humanity and the other a "genetically superior" life-form with highly developed physical and mental abilities.

As he walked toward a movie theater, he passed by some costumed people who seemed as though they were attending an anime convention. He scoffed; just why was the Japanese stuff so popular here? And why did American television companies just air that stuff instead of producing their own, probably much better, material? No, he didn't think it was their ingenuity that made foreign products so popular, just lack of drive and invention at home.

Suddenly, the sound of detonation reverberated in the air. Robin looked and saw dark smoke and flame rising into that air. It didn't take him long to realize just what was happening, and he was about to run toward it, only to find himself awash in fleeing people. Robin fought his way through the frightened masses, only to see a half-destroyed shell where the theater used to be.

"Oh . . . oh, God . . ." Robin uttered. When he saw a human hand dangling from the wreckage, he violently retched.

"What's the matter, boy? Stomach run away from you?" a voice taunted him.

Robin whirled and saw a purplish-skinned humanoid creature with a vulture's head, goat-like horns growing from that head, hands like cat's paws, and a scorpion's tail growing from a hunch on its back. All in all, the creature made a very eerie and terrifying sight. Despite that, Robin had the courage to spit, "Your jokes suck."

"You think my jokes suck?" the creature asked. "Well, I'll just break your funny bone and tell them to someone else!"

The creature extended its scorpion tail to strike Robin, only for Robin to quickly morph and block the tail with his Psycho Sword. "Who are you?"

"Call me Chimerax!" the creature roared. "And you, my little red friend, are going to meet your end! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

Psycho Red blasted Chimerax with lightning-tinged red flame, knocking the creature back. "You're not funny. What the hell did you do this for?"

"To draw you out, little Red Ranger." Chimerax laughed insanely, as though it was amused by what it had just said.

"You monster!" In a blur of superhuman speed, Psycho Red was attacking Chimerax with his sword. Chimerax simply took Psycho Red's attacks without flinching until it grew bored; then it grabbed Psycho Red's blade and threw him down the street. Chimerax made the throw with such force that Psycho Red was propelled all the way to the last intersection. At that point the twisted Red Ranger crashed through the back of a small building and fell down the cliff past it.

"God . . . dammit . . ." Psycho Red murmured. The armor had managed to absorb most of the impact, but what was left for him to take hurt a lot. He rolled over to his feet, just in time for Chimerax to jump after him. Psycho Red drew his sword and blocked Chimerax's attack, but barely.

"Oh, come on, Psycho Red!" Chimerax taunted. "Don't fall apart on me!" Another maniacal laugh punctuated his taunt.

* * *

_XIPHOS Base_

Ceres stared at the main screen of the central ops room. It didn't take her even a second to call in the other Rangers, who didn't take very long to enter. "Director?" Achala prompted.

"Mr. Murphy is in trouble," Ceres replied. "Go to his position and aid him."

Achala nodded and went straight for the vehicle bay, followed by the other Rangers. They each straddled the hoverbikes that bore their individual colors and started them up, riding out of the base and into the city.

* * *

_Times Square, New York City_

Psycho Red dodged Chimerax's tail yet again, only to be slashed in the back by the creature's claws. The twisted Red Ranger tried to get up, only for Chimerax to stomp on his back, directly on his wound. The creature ground its cloven foot into Red's back, eliciting ragged cries of pain from the Psycho Ranger.

"Must be some backbreaking labor, huh?" Chimerax quipped.

Suddenly, bolts of pink, blue, black, and yellow light struck Chimerax, knocking it off Psycho Red. Four hoverbike riders stopped before Chimerax and the Red Psycho Ranger, those riders removing their helmets and getting off their hoverbikes. The four riders were none other than Achala, Shango, Micaela, and Alaric and none of the four looked happy about what the creature had done to Robin, who had rolled onto his back and forced himself back onto his feet.

"Glad you're here," he groaned.

"What is this creature?" Shango asked.

"Dunno, but he slaughtered an entire movie theater . . . just to draw us out," Robin replied.

"Monster!" Micaela shouted at Chimerax.

"Yes, I am, pretty little lady," Chimerax replied. "Wanna ride the monster?" Yet another maniacal laugh marked its taunt.

Micaela growled angrily and raised her Psycho Morpher. "Execute Psycho Trigger!" The morph completing itself mere microseconds later, Psycho Yellow charged at Chimerax, firing her sling at it. Chimerax dodged her attacks, only for Psycho Yellow to tag it with a blast of yellow electricity. The other three Rangers morphed as well and joined Micaela in the fight, the four of them attacking Chimerax from all sides.

Just as it seemed the Rangers were beginning to hurt Chimerax, the creature lashed out with its tail and the tip barely penetrated Psycho Yellow's armor. The tip, however, did generate an electrical pulse that ran through Micaela's suit and overwhelmed her nervous system. Micaela collapsed, forcibly demorphed by the attack.

"Micaela!" Psycho Black shouted.

"I'll get her out of here," Psycho Red groaned. "Then I'll be back to finish this bastard off."

* * *

_XIPHOS Base, Infirmary_

Robin had picked up Micaela and teleported in a warp wave that carried him and her to XIPHOS Base. Once inside, Robin reverted to his human form, his injuries hitting him with such force that he collapsed on his knees. Struggling, he managed to get back on his feet and carry Micaela to the infirmary.

"What happened?" Miyuki asked.

"She's hurt," Robin replied. "That creature . . . it did this to her."

"What about you?"

"I promised I'd go back to finish the freak. I don't go back on my word."

"But you're hurt."

"Not as much as that freak's going to be." Robin turned and limped out of the infirmary, Miyuki watching him nervously. "Execute Psycho Trigger." Once morphed, Robin rode a warp wave back into the battlefield.

* * *

_Times Square, New York City_

When Robin returned to the battlefield, the other three Psycho Rangers were not in the best of conditions. The trio looked as though they had just sustained a terrible beating, which they probably had. None of them looked ready to throw in the towel yet, which was just fine by Robin, who ran up to them. "So . . . anybody ready to rip this piece of crap a new one?"

"How?" Alaric asked.

"Halberd," Robin replied. "But first . . ." He materialized his sword and handed it to Achala. "Go for it."

Achala picked up the sword and nocked it in her bow. She drew the sword back on the string, charging both string and sword with pink electricity, and fired upon Chimerax. The energized sword impaled Chimerax in the chest and those energies ran through the creature's body, eliciting howls of pain from it. Robin sped up to Chimerax and ripped the sword out, charging it with red lightning-edged fire and slashing the creature quickly and repetitively.

Alaric and Shango threw their weapons to Robin, who combined those weapons with his Psycho Sword to form the Psycho Halberd. Charging the gestalt weapon with his energies, Robin slashed Chimerax with the sword end and the axe end until Chimerax collapsed.

"You're dead," Robin snarled.

* * *

End Notes: Or is he? It seems like Chimerax is down for the count, but this is Power Rangers; the monster never goes down for good until the Zords come out. Speaking of Zords, you'll be seeing them in the next chapters. As to whether or not Robin and Micaela will fully recover from their injuries, you'll be seeing that, too. In the meantime, some commentary would be nice, and more apologies for leaving this story alone for so many years.


	11. Count Zero: Twisted Transistor

"Power Rangers Psycho Impulse"

Book 1.5: "Count Zero"

Chapter 2: "Twisted Transistor"

Disclaimer: The general concept of Power Rangers and Super Sentai does not belong to me; it belongs to Saban Brands and Toei respectively. I only own the idea for this story, even if I don't necessarily own the Ranger forms used.

Author's note: This chapter is going to contain the promised Zord action. Unlike many incarnations of Power Rangers, I am not going to introduce a whole bunch of Zords. The only Zords that will appear here are the ones that form into _the_ Megazord for the current Psycho Rangers. But first . . . we have to see how well Robin and Micaela recover from their injuries in the last chapter. Now, let's resume. Sincerest of apologies, again, for taking so long to resume this story at all, even if the continuation will ultimately be in the hands of The Amazing Shrinking Violet.

* * *

_XIPHOS Base Infirmary_

All five Psycho Rangers were in the infirmary, with gauze bindings for their wounds. While the Ranger energies would allow them to heal faster than a normal human would, it did not necessarily allow them to bypass medical care. While Achala, Shango, and Alaric were quietly resting, Robin was looming over Micaela's cot, watching her sleep.

"She hasn't woken up yet," he mumbled. "Why hasn't she woken up yet?"

"That last attack hit her directly in her nervous system," Miyuki replied. "An attack to the nervous system is a more serious injury than simply being punched or slashed." She looked to Robin. "You should try to rest."

"I can't . . ." Robin murmured.

"Why not?" Miyuki asked.

Robin looked at Miyuki briefly before returning his gaze to Micaela. "This is entirely my fault. If I was a better Red Ranger, she wouldn't be like this right now."

"Um, you're not exactly the leader."

"But that's what Red Rangers do. They lead, and in leading they're responsible for their teammates. And while we're resting here, those aliens – excuse me, _extraterrestrials_ – are probably taking the opportunity to do more damage to the world."

"You can't worry about that now. You have to focus on healing."

Robin looked down at Micaela solemnly. "I'll make myself a better Red Ranger, then." With that said, Robin briskly departed the infirmary for the flight simulator room. He had some training to do.

* * *

_Ziktor Industries – Seattle, Washington_

"You have the body?" Ziktor asked his subordinate, a dark-haired woman in a white lab coat over black clothes.

"Yes," the subordinate replied. "Would you like to see it?"

"Yes" came the curt response.

Ziktor's subordinate guided her boss into the R&D department of the corporate base. Once inside, she took him to where the body of Chimerax had been cryogenically preserved. "The Rangers did quite a number on him, didn't they?"

"Yes, but he also did a number on them," the subordinate replied.

"Is there a way we can reuse him?" Ziktor asked.

"We're currently working on integrating cybernetic material with his body," the subordinate explained. "So far, we've cyberized his right arm, shoulder, leg, and tail."

"What about the rest?"

"We're working on a full cyber-conversion. If it works, he'll be even stronger and faster than before."

"And what about the maximal upgrade?"

"That'll be included in the FCC package."

"Good. The Rangers won't know what hit them."

* * *

_XIPHOS Base, Simulator Room_

"All right . . . I can do this," Robin whispered to himself as he piloted the flight simulator. On the inside, there was a projection all around him of a sky filled with enemy aircraft. Robin smiled grimly. "Have to fight harder _and_ smarter."

He "flew" around and between the enemy aircraft, dodging their assaults and returning fire himself. He went into a dive, leveling out 700 feet above the ground and zooming back up. The enemy aircraft gave chase, but Robin evaded them.

"Stealth mode," he ordered.

"_Stealth mode on,"_ the flight simulator stated.

Invisible to the enemy aircraft, Robin began picking off several at his leisure. The others attempted to track him, but they couldn't find him, leaving Robin free to finish them off one by one. When he turned off the stealth mode, Robin did so with a bang, unleashing a lethal barrage upon the enemy aircraft, which all fell to that barrage.

"_End simulation,"_ the flight simulator stated.

The hatch opened and Robin climbed out of the flight simulator. "How long have you been doing this?" Alaric asked.

"I don't know," Robin admitted, "but I feel ready now."

"Ready for what?"

"To take on anything that comes our way, to come through for this team, to not let you down like I have before."

"Good to hear." Alaric gently punched Robin's shoulder, eliciting a wince from Robin. "Sorry."

"It's all right. Still healing." He looked at Alaric. "Is she awake?"

"Micaela? Yeah."

"_Rangers, report to the Central Ops Room immediately,_" Ceres ordered over the intercom.

* * *

_XIPHOS Base, Central Ops Room_

The Psycho Rangers stood assembled in the ops room of XIPHOS Base, with Ceres looking at Robin curiously. "You've been training nonstop for three days, with short breaks for eating or sleeping or showering. Then again, your sleep breaks have been fairly long. What's that about?"

"After Micaela got hurt . . . it woke me up," Robin replied. "I haven't been taking this thing too seriously. I thought I was invincible, untouchable, but . . . she could have been killed. _I_ could have been killed. _We all_ could have been killed, and the way I've been up till recently won't cut it. Not if I'm gonna pull my weight on this team."

Ceres smiled. "Looks like we might finally have a useful Red on this team."

Shango looked at Robin appreciatively, as did Achala and Micaela, the latter of whom smiled wryly at him. "If this is permanent," she said, "I think we might just get along."

"Director, our satellite feed has alerted us to a monster attack in San Angeles!" one of the monitors called.

Ceres looked at the surveillance holo-screen closest to her. That holo-screen showed a cybernetic creature resembling Chimerax rampaging through San Angeles. The Psycho Rangers saw the creature as well . . . and Robin and Alaric visibly paled. The creature had nearly killed them before and for it to have returned heralded nothing but badness for them.

"Go," Ceres ordered.

* * *

_San Angeles, California_

The Psycho Rangers arrived in San Angeles on their hoverbikes, having traveled at a few times the speed of sound to arrive quickly enough to stop Cyber-Chimerax. "I don't know how you came back, mother#$%&, but you're gonna wish you hadn't!" Psycho Red shouted.

"If it isn't Little Red Psycho Hood!" Chimerax shouted. "I'm dying with delight to see you again!"

"Too bad we don't return the sentiment," Psycho Black retorted.

Chimerax whipped his tail at the Psycho Rangers, who managed to dodge . . . but the tail struck the ground, and blew up an entire section of street. "Oh, my God," Psycho Red uttered. "He wasn't _that_ strong before!"

"Synthanas did this for me!" Chimerax shouted. "And now I'm going to kill you, Psycho Rangers!"

"Kill us?" Psycho Yellow sneered. "You tried that already. It didn't work the first time and it's not going to work now!" She fired a blast of green lightning at Chimerax, who dodged with inhuman reflexes and lashed his tail out at her. This time, Psycho Yellow caught the tail and used it as leverage to throw the creature into a nearby parked car.

Chimerax rose to his feet and brought his tail up again, but this time to fire an energy blast from the stinger. Psychos Yellow and Pink dodged and brought forth their own weapons, blasting Chimerax with them. Those weapons didn't seem to do anything to deter the monster, as he proved by charging them in spite of their weapons fire. Just as Chimerax was upon the female Psycho Rangers, the male Psychos intercepted him with slashes from their weapons.

"I say we bust out the rifle and put some caps in his ass," Psycho Red suggested.

"An excellent suggestion, but you don't have to be so crude about it," Psycho Blue agreed.

The Psycho Rangers combined their weapons into the Psycho Rifle, pointing it at Chimerax, who just charged them. Seeing as they were in immediate danger of death, the Psychos felt perfectly justified in firing on Chimerax. The blast pushed Chimerax back, but it didn't finish him off. It did, however, leave him very pissed off.

"You . . . little punks!" he screamed. "You do not hurt me! I hurt you!"

"Really? How are you going to do that?" Psycho Pink asked.

"Chimerax, maximize!" the monster screamed and a multifaceted crystal formed around his body. Once the crystal finished forming, it levitated some sixty feet into the air and a metal construct formed around it. It was a construct that strongly resembled Chimerax, only sixty feet tall, with the head surrounding the crystal housing Chimerax's real body.

"We . . . how the f#$% do we fight that?" Psycho Red asked.

"We do," Psycho Pink replied.

"I'm going to crush you like bugs!" Chimerax shouted.

The Psycho Rangers gathered their energies and joined them as a ball of green lightning that they fired at the gargantuan Chimerax, who screeched in anger. Chimerax stomped toward them, one step covering fifty feet. The Psycho Rangers scattered to avoid being crushed by Chimerax.

Psycho Red looked up at Chimerax, scanning his new giant body for any weaknesses. The scanner in his helmet locked onto the giant Chimerax's head, in which his real body resided as the "brain" of the giant body. Now all that was left to do was find a way to get at Chimerax's real body.

Suddenly, he heard Ceres' voice in his helmet. _"Rangers, I'm sending you some assistance."_

"What kind of assistance?" Psycho Red asked.

The Psycho Rangers looked up and saw portals opening to loose an aircraft and four land-based vehicles. The aircraft had a red body with black highlights and black wings with red highlights and resembled a phoenix. Two of the land vehicles resembled a black-and-yellow hornet and a black-and-pink wasp molded into sleek, capsular motorcycles. The third resembled an ice blue-and-black bear molded into a cross between a tank and a sports car. The fourth resembled a black gorilla molded into a more explicit tank, with its "legs" bent backward to form what looked like a car trunk and its "arms" crossed before it into a triangular shape, supporting the frame of the cockpit.

"Whoa . . ." Psycho Red uttered. "Those are ours?"

"_Yes,"_ Miyuki replied. _"Those are your Psycho Zords."_

"Let's go," Psycho Pink ordered, leading the team into their Psycho Zords.

"_Phantom Wing synchronization complete,_" the A.I. for Psycho Red's Zord spoke as soon as Psycho Red docked the phoenix-like aerial assault vehicle.

"_Blizzard Core synchronization complete,_" the A.I. for Psycho Blue's Zord spoke as soon as Psycho Blue docked the bear-like "sports tank."

"_Vulcan Grip synchronization complete,_" the A.I. for Psycho Black's Zord spoke as soon as Psycho Black docked the gorilla-like tank.

"_Jupiter Right synchronization complete,_" the A.I. for Psycho Yellow's Zord spoke as soon as Psycho Yellow docked the enclosed, hornet-like motorcycle.

"_Demeter Left synchronization complete,_" the A.I. for Psycho Pink's Zord spoke as soon as Psycho Pink docked the enclosed, waspish motorcycle.

"Remember," Psycho Pink said over the communication link, "we've trained for this."

"The training is nothing," Psycho Blue answered. "The _will_ is everything."

"Whatever," Psycho Red said. "Let's kick some ass."

* * *

End Notes: There you have it. The Psycho Rangers have finally gotten their Zords and it looks like Robin's starting to change his attitude. Will the Rangers prove triumphant over Chimerax? What other mysteries will arise to challenge and confound the Psychos when The Amazing Shrinking Violet continues this story for me? For the answers to those questions and others, read on and thank you for reading this.


	12. Count Zero: Combined Contortion

"Power Rangers Psycho Impulse"

Book 1.5: "Count Zero"

Chapter 3: "Combined Contortion"

Disclaimer: Power Rangers belongs to Disney. I only own the idea for this story and most of the characters, not to mention I'm not making any money off this story.

Author's note: It's Megazord time! Yes, some of you have been wondering when the Psycho Rangers will get Zords and that time is now. Hopefully, you enjoy this Zord fight, because it's gonna take up most of the chapter . . . I hope.

* * *

_San Angeles, United States_

"You think your puny little vehicles can beat me?!" Chimerax asked. "I will shred you all into tiny little pieces of wreckage!"

"Bring it!" Psycho Red snarled, gunning the Phantom Wing into a dive bomb. As soon as he was close enough to Chimerax, he fired a missile at the cybernetic beast and ascended out of the way. Chimerax roared in rage and pain as the missile detonated against his armored body.

"You little s#$%! I'm going to kill you for that!"

"Look alive, Chimerax!" Psycho Yellow shouted, driving Jupiter Right between Chimerax's feet. She skidded on the road and stopped to open fire on Chimerax, who screamed in outrage and fired upon Psycho Yellow, who dodged his attacks with mocking ease.

Psycho Pink rode Demeter Left up Chimerax's leg and torso. Chimerax attempted to swat her off him, but she twisted onto his shoulder and opened fire on his neck, eliciting more howls of outraged pain from him. She rode on his flailing arms and jumped off his farthest arm as though it were a ramp.

Psychos Black and Blue opened fire on Chimerax from Vulcan Grip and Blizzard Core. He yelled in anger and returned fire, forcing them to dodge. Unfortunately, the two were not as fast and maneuverable as their comrades' Zords and thus they got hit, causing them both to cry out in surprise.

"He's gonna pay for that!" Psycho Black snarled.

"Yes, he will," Psycho Blue agreed. "As long as we stay focused."

"Hey, ugly! Over here!" Psycho Red shouted, firing more missiles at Chimerax, who swatted at him. Fortunately for Psycho Red, Phantom Wing was very maneuverable, enabling the twisted Red Ranger to easily dodge Chimerax's attacks.

Psychos Yellow and Pink rode their motorcycle Zords around and between Chimerax's feet, forming an infinity symbol that solidified into an energy trap for the monster. They rode in opposite directions, tightening the trap around Chimerax's ankles and forcing his legs together. Due to the sudden force of the ensnarement, Chimerax fell on his front.

"Got him," Psycho Pink stated in grim satisfaction.

"You . . . think you have me?" Chimerax snarled. "You think _you have me?! YOU'RE WRONG!_"

Chimerax disassembled his robotic body, leaving behind the control crystal he inhabited, and then the control crystal re-formed into a vehicular version of his robotic body. Chimerax strafed Psychos Yellow and Pink from his perch in the sky, both female Psycho Rangers struggling to outmaneuver his rapid fire. The only thing that interrupted his vengeful shooting was Psycho Red's missiles.

"You still interfere with me?!" Chimerax roared. "_Die!_"

Chimerax fired a smart bomb at Psycho Red, who attempted to dodge. Unfortunately, it was a smart bomb, meaning that it followed Psycho Red. The twisted Red Ranger gunned Phantom Wing as fast as he could, but the smart bomb continued to pursue him. He pushed Phantom Wing into an ascent, but the smart bomb continued to pursue him. Finally, he simply descended . . . toward Chimerax.

"I may go . . . but I'm gonna make sure you feel it!" Psycho Red snarled.

"What is he doing?" Psycho Blue asked.

"Suicide run," Psycho Black replied, "which I'm not letting him get away with."

Psycho Black prepared one of the missiles in Vulcan Grip and fired it at the smart bomb. "Psycho Red, get out of the way!"

Psycho Red dodged just as Psycho Black's missile hit the smart bomb, the explosion scarring Chimerax's back. Chimerax opened fire on Psycho Black, only for Psycho Blue to retort with a missile from Blizzard Core. Psychos Yellow and Pink raced up opposite skyscraper facades and shot off at Chimerax, firing at him. They landed on his back and continued firing up close and personal, forcing Chimerax to fly fast to get them off him. The female Psycho Rangers dived off Chimerax and plummeted together.

"What's this guy's weakness?" Psycho Red asked.

"Why don't you try using your onboard A.I.'s analytical systems?" Psycho Pink asked.

"You're the one who's plummeting to your death!" Psycho Red protested. "How are you so calm?!"

"Death happens," Psycho Pink replied calmly, even as she and Psycho Yellow landed roughly on the ground. "But not today."

Psycho Red decided to follow Psycho Pink's advice. "Phantom Wing, scan Chimerax for any weaknesses."

"_Commence scan,"_ the onboard A.I. responded. Psycho Red's cockpit was suddenly alight with a heads-up display of Chimerax's internal workings and schematics. Highlighted in red was the control crystal that housed his real body, which was embedded in the front nose of the aircraft he was controlling. _"Scan complete. Weak spot found."_

"Hey, guys!" Psycho Red shouted. "I found his weak spot! I'm uploading it to your onboard computers!"

"We see it," Psycho Blue said.

"Yeah," Psycho Black agreed.

"Got it," Psycho Yellow added.

"Much obliged," Psycho Pink said.

"Just one problem," Psycho Red said. "How are we going to get at that weak spot? You guys are ground vehicles and I'm an aircraft. I'll be all alone up here!"

"I thought you could take care of it by yourself," Psycho Yellow remarked sardonically.

"Well, maybe I was wrong on that count!" Psycho Red retorted.

"Calm down," Psycho Pink advised. "There's no need to shout."

"_Your assault vehicles can combine into a larger robotic assault vehicle called a Megazord,"_ Miyuki's voice spoke in their Zords' communications systems. _"All you have to do is command your respective onboard A.I.s to synchronize with each other._"

"Ok, then," Psycho Red said. "Let's do it!"

"Initiate Zord synchronization process," Psycho Pink commanded.

"Initiate Zord synchronization process," Psycho Yellow ordered.

"Initiate Zord synchronization process," Psycho Black instructed.

"Initiate Zord synchronization process," Psycho Blue ordered.

"Initiate Zord synchronization process," Psycho Red commanded.

"_Zord synchronization process initiated,"_ all five onboard A.I.'s spoke.

Jupiter Right and Demeter Left sprouted metal casings around their front wheels and raised themselves on those front wheels. Their bodies lifted upward, pointing at a right angle to their front wheels while those same front wheels remained grounded. Blizzard Core reconfigured itself into what resembled an armored humanoid torso and thighs. Vulcan Grip twisted and re-formed itself into a pair of shoulders and arms that attached itself to the top of Blizzard Core. Vulcan Grip's arms lifted to grab Jupiter Right and Demeter Left, pulling the combination of itself and Blizzard Core onto the two motorcycle Zords and forming a larger configuration with them. Phantom Wing flew down toward the headless mecha formation, its wings breaking off and attaching to the undersides of the mecha's arms. Its body and head reconfigured into a humanoid head that attached to the top of the mecha's shoulders.

The Psycho Rangers transferred themselves into the main cockpit of the completed mecha configuration. They sat in a singular row of the cockpit, with Red in the center and Pink and Yellow on either side of him with Blue and Black next to Pink and Yellow.

"_Zord synchronization process complete,"_ the onboard A.I. spoke. _"Megazord formation online."_

"How come you get to sit in the center?" Psycho Black asked.

"That's just the way it worked out," Psycho Red replied. "Deal with it."

"Seating means nothing," Psycho Pink cut in. "I'm still in charge."

"Well, then, fearless leader, what do we do?" Psycho Red asked.

Psycho Pink permitted herself a smirk beneath her helmet. "We defeat him."

"I don't care how big you are, you're going down!" Chimerax shouted, opening fire on the Megazord. The Megazord crossed its arms at the command of Psycho Black, forming a particle beam aegis that blocked Chimerax's assaults. Furious, Chimerax broke down his vehicular body and reconfigured it into his standard twisted humanoid shape, landing on the ground to confront the Megazord.

At the command of Psycho Red, the Megazord withdrew its wings from its arms and brandished them as weapons. "Come on, mother#$%&!" the twisted Red Ranger challenged. "Let's go!"

"As you wish!" Chimerax roared and whipped his tail at the Megazord, which blocked his tail with its wing-blades. The Megazord retaliated by slashing Chimerax with its wing-blades, only for Chimerax to return in kind with a strike from his tail. The Megazord staggered but did not fall, combining the wings into a singular weapon. At the command of Psychos Yellow and Pink, the Megazord ran at Chimerax and impaled him through his head, where the control crystal resided.

Chimerax howled in pain as his giant robotic body broke down and the control crystal he inhabited shattered. The normal-sized Chimerax fell to the ground hard, his armor damaged and blue-black blood leaking from the damaged parts of that armor. The Psycho Rangers jumped out of the Megazord and stood before Chimerax.

"And now for the _coup de grace,_" Psycho Blue said.

"Yes," Psycho Pink agreed, leading the charge. The Psycho Rangers charged up their energies and combined them into a concentrated blast of green lightning that ripped Chimerax apart.

"Done deal," Psycho Red said.

* * *

_Washington, D.C., United States_

In Capitol Hill, the Senate Committee on Military Commissions was meeting . . . and they seemed rather pleased. They managed to contain themselves, but anyone looking at them could tell that they seemed rather satisfied. The most satisfied was the committee chair, Dania Henson.

"The Rangers killed Slypha's creature," one of the senators, a bespectacled man with a comb-over, remarked.

"It doesn't matter," another senator, this one a woman with well-kept graying hair, answered. "Slypha will create more creatures to distract the Rangers."

"And so will we," Senator Henson replied. "We still need to gather their precious materials so we can wipe out the Slypha."

"There is some trouble with that," a third senator, a man with a well-groomed hoary head, spoke. "We have been dealing with interference."

"From whom?" Senator Henson asked.

"We don't know," the first senator answered. "But he is just as troublesome as the Rangers."

"You'll deal with him, I trust," Senator Henson stated.

"Yes," the second senator spoke, "but we will have to call in Fairabaddox."

"Call her in, then," Senator Henson responded. "Just make sure this interferer is eliminated."

"It will be done," the third senator stated.

* * *

_XIPHOS Base Lounge – New York City, United States_

"I can't believe we did it!" Robin exclaimed. "Our first giant monster, and we kicked its ass! Who's the man, who's the man, who's the mother#$%& man?!"

"While your enthusiasm is much appreciated, could you please try not to be so loud?" Shango asked.

"I'm with him," Alaric agreed. "I like you, Robin, I think you're a great guy . . . but turn down the noise."

"Besides, you didn't do it all by yourself," Micaela added. "I believe it was a team effort."

"Ok, ok," Robin conceded. "But we gotta celebrate!"

"How do you propose we do that?" Micaela asked, sounding vaguely intrigued.

"It isn't time to celebrate yet," Achala cut in. "We still have much to do before we can do that."

"Don't be a spoilsport, 'Chal," Robin wheedled. "It's not going to kill you to have some fun."

"Address me by my full name or not at all," Achala answered.

Robin slumped on the couch. "Fine. We'll celebrate without you."

Achala snorted. "Shango. You can keep him out of trouble, can't you?"

"Yes," Shango replied with a vague smile.

"Then go and celebrate," Achala said.

"What about you?" the twisted Blue Ranger asked.

"I'll stay here," the twisted Pink Ranger replied.

"Sure, whatever," Robin said. "C'mon, guys, let's go."

* * *

End Notes: The Psycho Rangers have gotten their Megazord and seemingly beaten the bad guy, but what's with the conspiracy in the Senate Committee on Military Commissions? Who's interfering with that conspiracy and will the Psycho Rangers ever meet him? Is this mysterious interloper a Ranger, too, or is he something else? Is he even a "he"? For the answers to those questions and others, you will have to go to The Amazing Shrinking Violet, whom I've entrusted with the continuation of this story. In the meantime, I reiterate my apologies for taking so many years to update this story at all and I hope you'll let me know what you thought of this last arc by yours truly. Thank you all.


End file.
